


Petunia Evans, a Retelling

by HouseElfMagic



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Baby Harry Potter, F/M, Found Family, Gen, I'm not sure how to tag this, Other, destroying horcruxes, everyone's awesome, not-evil Petunia Evans, petunia-centric, regulus makes a cameo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2016-11-27
Packaged: 2018-09-02 13:36:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 36,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8669707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HouseElfMagic/pseuds/HouseElfMagic
Summary: Petunia remembered magic. Being young and making things happen--strange things, impossible things--and then the pain when that man took it all away, locked it inside her.She doesn't get it back until Lily's started Hogwarts already and by then she's old enough to decide she wants to keep her own magic a secret.She didn't know that this would ultimately lead her on a quest to raise her nephew and defeat an evil megalomaniac calling himself Voldemort.But, well, here she is. She will do whatever it takes to keep her nephew safe.And hey, if she gets a pseudo father, rescues a convict, makes friends, becomes an almost permanent babysitter to two additional children, and writes books along the way, then that's a definite bonus.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> An interesting 'what if' idea that came into my head several years ago. I've been working on this off and on for literally years.
> 
> Spans from Petunia aged 4 to early 20s.
> 
> IMPORTANT: I was reviewing everything I could find about Grindelwald and apparently he and Dumbledore originally teamed up to rule all muggles??? Can someone please tell me how the hell we still think of Dumbledore as we do? Because I see a problem here......  
> TIMELINE: I’m moving everything up by about a decade. Basically, Petunia and Lily were born in the early 70s, so Harry starts Hogwarts around 2000. The timeline will have liberties taken, obviously.  
> And yes, the entire story will be in past tense because whenever I write present tense, it just turns out poorly.

Petunia remembers being four years old.

Life was simple back then. She was happy, learning to read, playing with her little baby sister. She also remembers the magical outbursts- accidental magic, they call it. It got worse and worse as she got older, things appearing on a whim, broken toys fixed themselves, things falling when she got angry, and on one notable occasion, she managed to break her dad’s car when she was particularly upset.

Of course, the one time she did anything very publicly, someone saw. A young new Auror was on break, traversing muggle London when he saw a little girl float a teddy bear down to herself, hugging the new friend. However, the young auror new the downsides of showing accidental magic to muggles being a muggleborn himself and made a decision.

“Hello, young one. What’s your name?”

“Petunia, like the flowa.” Petunia said, trying to pronounce the words correctly. “Alright, Petunia, do you know what you just did there?”

“I wanted the teddy and I made it come to me.”

“Well, little miss, that’s called magic, but it’s not safe to show to others. I’m gonna cast a spell to bind your magic until you get your letter for school.”

“Lettew? Bind?”

“ _Ligaveris magicae!_ ” Sadly, the auror was young. He didn’t know much about the magic he had and didn’t realize that by binding Petunia’s magic, he sealed her fate. Binding magic meant that the magic fueling Hogwarts letters would read her as a Squib, thus she would never get a letter after all.

She remembered being able to do magic. She remembered the man’s wand. She remembered the yellow light that hurt so much, binding her magic. She remembered the empty feeling afterwards.

She remembered, but no one believed her, even when Lily’s magic surfaced. All of her little magical outbursts were blamed on Lily even when she began to manage little tricks again. She could again make things appear on their own, fix broken things, and make things happen when she was sad or angry.

When Lily was 11 and Petunia 12, Lily received her Hogwarts letter and Petunia tried to write a letter also, but received no answer. Petunia’s magic was still bound, while Lily’s was not.

 ---------------------

“Diagon Alley? Are you sure that’s what the professor said, Lily flower?”

“Yes, momma. She said that we ask Mr. Tom in the Leaky Cauldron on Charing Cross Road to let us into Diagon Alley.”

“Oh, this is so exciting.”

“Now, Evelyn, we’d best not get ahead of ourselves. Lily, did you invite Severus over for dinner tomorrow?”

“Yes, daddy.”

“Petunia, did you invite that Vernon kid over?”

“God, no, daddy. He’s mean. I was wondering if I could invite Laura from school instead.”

“You may, darling.”

“Oh, here we are. The Leaky Cauldron. Bit of an odd name for something trying to pass as normal. Wait out here, won’t you? I’ll only be a moment.”

...........

“-of course, of course. Follow me, please. Now, whoever’s the witch here, watch this pattern carefully.” Mr. Tom tapped the wall in five places in sequence and the bricks moved aside, prompting him to return to the bar and making Petunia and Lily’s parents look up in astonishment while Lily beamed and Petunia smiled.

“Alright, your school supplies say-- is that a bank? Oh, we should see what the currency exchange is first. Come along."

“Mumma, there’s ice cream! Can we get some please?!”

“Sure, Lily flower. Petunia-?”

“Can I stay with Dad? I want to see everything.”

“Um, alright, sweetums. Follow me.”

............

“Did you see them dad?! Goblins?! That’s so cool!”

“Mhmm.”

“Can I look at the books while you get Lily her wand? Even if I can’t do anything, it’d be really fantastic to read everything. Do you think they have magical fairytales? Oh my god, do you think Merlin was real?!”

“Calm down, Petunia. Yes, you may look at the books, but if anything happens, scream as loudly as you can, alright?”

“Yes, daddy!” Petunia scampered off to the bookstore- Flourish and Blott, it was called- and began to collect Lily’s books before looking at what she could get for herself. There were books on everything she could imagine.

“Hello. First year?” Petunia flushed.

“Oh, no, I’m picking up books for my sister while she gets her wand. Is there anything- is there anything that would be interesting for a mug-muggle?”

“Ah. Well, we have the Tales of Beedle the Bard- the wizarding children’s story, you have to understand. We also have a lot of books on magical theory if you want to see them. There are multiple works of fiction in the right-hand corner over there. I can show you, if you’d like.”

“Yes, please!” .......... “Petunia? Petunia- oh, there you are. That’s... a lot of books.”

“Well, I got all of Lily’s already picked up. They’re on the bottom of the pile. The store manager showed me all these books of fiction and fairytales. It’s so very interesting, daddy. Please, please, please!”

“Oh, alright. But if they’re too expensive, it’s coming out of your allowance.”

“Yes!”

\----------------

_-transfiguration is an art of will and magic. One without the other produces no effect. For example, one of the simplest examples of transfiguration is similarly sized and shaped objects being transfigured into one another. Turning a match into a needle is considered the most basic form of transfiguration and is thus taught in every magical school in Britain. To do so, one must focus the spell- Imitari Acus- on the match, willing it with power of mind to become a needle. Visualization is perhaps the most important step. To turn the match into a needle and not just a pointy silvery match, one must imagine the transformation into a needle. To-_

“Petunia! I know you took my book! There you are!” Lily walked up to Petunia and grabbed the book from her hands. “That’s my book!”

“You weren’t using it! Besides, you’ll have all year to look over it, I only have a few more days.”

“Why does it matter? You can’t do it anyway. Why torture yourself like that?” Petunia bit her tongue.

“Whatever. Don’t take my books again or I’m telling mum.” Petunia went downstairs and took three matches from the kitchen. She walked back upstairs and shut the door, locking it behind her.

_Im- imitari acus, that was it. So what if...?_ She pointed her hand at the match, palm outward.

“Imitari acus!” She whispered.

Nothing. She pouted. Maybe it was because she didn’t have a wand. Or- oh, right, visualization! Confidence gathered once more, she again thrust her palm at the match.

“Imitari acus!” With all her might, she imagined the match turning silver and pointy, even adding the small hole for thread and suddenly she looked down.

And there it was. She wasn’t crazy! It worked! She was _magic_.

_And yet..._

For whatever reason- maybe to please her parents by not leaving, though god knows Lily was the favorite child anyway- she hesitated to tell anyone. Maybe she wanted her magic to be her own little secret. Maybe she didn’t want to be looked at differently. But whatever held her back, kept her from telling her parents or Lily.

Finally, she had a secret life like in the books. She wanted to be special.

\------------

She was looking through her book on magical theory when it happened.

_-Magical bindings are used only for children or criminals whose magic is deemed unsafe in wild form. Because of the rare usage of this binding on children and the forceful removal of magic, it is used sparingly thus very little is known about the long-lasting effects of the binding. As a general rule, it is used only on the magically powerful and unstable.-_

Is that not what the man had said he was doing? Of course, now the letter part made sense, but she’d never gotten a letter because that moron bound her magic. So how can she unbind it? And why could she still do tricks? Had it unbound itself?

_-The goblins are the simplest means by which to remove a binding at low cost, just as they can determine lineage and magical creature inheritances. In the fifteenth century-_

She’d have to ask the Goblins at Gringott’s bank, but to do that, she had to get to Diagon Alley. She’d have to be sneaky.


	2. Chapter Two

****Petunia’s thirteenth birthday came and went and she plotted how to get to Diagon Alley in London. In the end, her plan came down to manipulating her parents and the parents of her friends to believe different things.

She told Lizabeth’s parents that she was to be dropped off the block across from the Leaky Cauldron for lunch with her parents who would meet her there. She told her parents, however, that Lizabeth’s parents would drop her off three blocks down at the movie theater before leaving for a dentist appointment approximately four hours later.

It was all very well-thought out for a thirteen-year-old, she felt.

.........

The plan worked well enough that she got into Diagon Alley without trouble. Her first destination, like the previous trip, was to Gringotts, carrying her allowance from the last year. Walking up to the counter, she tried to hide her nerves as she nodded respectfully to a goblin.

“How may I help you?” The creature sneered. She didn’t know much about goblins- hardly anything really- but she hoped that she hadn’t personally done anything to somehow offend the man. Did goblins ascribe to human genders?

“I would like to open a vault, exchange some currency, and remove a bind on my magic.”

“The fine to open a vault is 7 galleons. The conversion from European muggle currency to magical currency comes with a charge of 2.6%. A bind-removal is 5 galleons and 2 sickles.” 

**(A/N: 1 GB pound = $1.59 USD, 1 Galleon = 5 GB pounds, 1 Galleon = ~$8)**  

Thankfully, Petunia knew the conversion rate enough to know she had a sufficient amount of money.

“Of course. I still wish to complete the transactions.”

“Follow me. I shall be your account manager should you choose to open an account. My name is Ragnok.” Petunia nodded politely and followed Ragnok into a back room clearly used for rituals.

“I will need to get two of my colleagues for the magical binding removal. Remain here.” Within moments, two more goblins had entered the room. They were rather short, even shorter than her, and didn’t look exceptionally kind, but her mother and father had taught her manners in front of strangers so she hoped she was on her best behavior.

“Payment first.” After a quick calculation in her head, she handed over the money. Ragnok moved the money out of sight and the three goblins began chanting together, staring at her, making her mildly uncomfortable before she began to feel odd. First, she was jittery, then practically vibrating, then came the pain. It was brief, but intense and she was surprised not to have screamed, though she was highly disoriented after the goblins stopped chanting. She felt... strange. Whole. Her skin tingled and she was full of energy. A smile formed on her face as she saw sparks on her hands.

“A side effect of the sudden release of magical energy. You should be perfectly fine in two hours.” Ragnok spoke, sending the other two goblins out of the room with a curt nod. Ragnok led her next back to the front entrance.

“The vault, once ordered, will be available in one to two days’ time. We typically require at least 20 galleons deposit to start up an account.” Petunia handed over her bag of money. Finally, Petunia was ready to leave Gringotts. She had shopping to do. She checked her watch- only two and a half hours before she’d have to run three blocks.

She needed a wand.

............

After finding her perfect wand- unicorn hair, ebony wood, 12 inches, supple- Petunia managed to purchase some of the 1st and 2nd year Hogwarts curriculum requirements, but decided Potions and Astronomy could wait; she didn’t want to stink up the house and she wasn’t overly curious about astrology. She most certainly wasn’t going to bother with robes yet- not if she didn’t have to. She would like a book on Hogwarts though, since Lily had talked about being in Gryffindor at Hogwarts in her last owl. Deciding eventually, that her true destination was Flourish and Blotts, she meandered over to the shop and spent as much time as she could looking at all the books and buying as many as she dared. She glanced at her watch and noted the time had flown and it was almost time to meet her parents.

“If it wouldn’t inconvenience you terribly, would you mind shrinking these please?”

“Of course. If you don’t mind my asking, why aren’t you at Hogwarts right now?”

“Oh, I’m younger than I look- only ten.”

“These are the first two years of Hogwarts course books among others.” The man said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, well, never bad to get a head start.” The man didn’t seem convinced, but said nothing else, shrinking the bag the books had been put in. Petunia just hoped she would remember the counter curse. _Finite Incantatem_ seemed to work for most simple spells at least.

\---------------

For the next few months, she happily attended to her muggle (she preferred “non-magical”) schoolwork and read as much and practiced as much of her magical studies as she could. She wasn’t spectacular, partially because she was learning everything from books rather than being taught the material, but she could perform most of the spells she found. But since she wasn’t studying Potions or Astrology, she managed to get through her studies fairly quickly, aided by her love of learning magic. She still felt like she was playing catch-up, but she was confident that she could finish all of the first year core-classes, exempting Potions, by the time Lily returned home. When Lily did return, she was not alone.

“Severus.”

“Petunia.” Petunia sniffed the air.

“What is that smell?”

“A dungbomb.” He sneered. “James Potter thought it would be a nice end-of-term farewell.” Petunia grimaced and tried to breathe through her mouth.

“Sorry.” He glared.

“Oh, there you are, Tunie. Sev... what’s that smell?” Petunia rolled her eyes at the hated nickname and Severus’s glare hardened.

“Ask Potter.”

“A-Alright. C’mon, Tunie, mum says dinner’s ready. She’s fixing my favorite, roast beef with mashed potatoes. Severus, you’re invited too, but I think a shower first might be a good idea. I’ll save you a plate.”

“Don’t bother. Mum’s making me dinner. I’ll see you around, Lily.” Severus stated, walking off, not acknowledging Petunia in the least.

“I’ve been nothing but civil. Why does he still hate me? And why can’t you understand that I don’t like that nickname, Lily?”

“Well, there’s... you have to understand, old-family witches and wizards think that because they have magic, they’re better than muggles like you.”

“Muggles like _me_?” Petunia questioned, a cautionary tone in her voice.  
“Well, yeah, people without magic.” Petunia gave a long pause.

“If you’re starting to believe that bull, I suggest you look around you. Mum, dad, and I are non-magicals. If you suppose we’re inferior, I suggest you tell mum and dad that. Besides, think of all the advances us _muggles_ have made without the ease of magic. Electricity, radio, film, science, math, the arts. No magic necessary.”

“Tunie, that’s not what I meant and you know it!”

“Stop calling me that! And I’m telling you not to get caught up in that bull about the superiority of magicals over non-magicals. I’ve seen the way Severus sneers at me, like I’m below him. Don’t become like him, Lily, please.”

“T-Petunia, Severus is my friend!”

“Yes, and our friends can be _wrong!_ ”

“You’re only proving him right by yelling at me!”

“And who’s the one twisting words now? Don’t tell me you believe he’s right?”

“Of course not! I mean- he doesn’t think- I’m not- ugh! You’re so difficult!”

“Lily, Petunia, dinner’s getting cold!”

And thus, the argument was put on hold, but not forgotten by either sister.

..........

That summer was tense. The two sisters, once almost close, were now very distant. Lily would go over to play with Severus in the park often and Petunia locked herself in her room to try to learn all that Lily would be learning at Hogwarts this upcoming school year. By the end of the summer, she was just barely all of the way through with the core classes for second year, but she still hesitated to do Potions where her parents might see or she could cause some sort of accident. She refused to study Astrology except for a few of the basic constellations due to not having an practical use for the study since she wouldn’t go into Divination.

She loved her studies even though she had to learn both non-magical and magical schoolwork. Transfiguration was brilliant (if only it was alchemy and she could turn things to gold!) and she saw something about Animagi that looked fascinating. Imagine turning into an animal! Charms was just as interesting, while Herbology was somewhat boring without being able to see anything or touch it in person, but she made sure to know the coursework enough to answer any questions that might be on a test. Defense against the dark arts was quite interesting because she wanted to make sure she knew how to defend herself and her family from magical attacks. It was nice and certainly a confidence boost and it helped that she could identify and theoretically bring down the monsters lurking in the shadows.

She wished she could take flying like Lily had, but since Lily didn’t have a broom (they _actually_ rode brooms! How barbaric; it would be so terribly uncomfortable, but imagine a flying chair or motorcycle instead...) she’d have to do without.

Her favorite books by far though, were the ones not on practical magic, but on magical theory and the history of magic- which was an inappropriate name given that the topic was the history of magical cultures. Learning the magic itself was one thing, but learning about goblin, elf, house elf, merfolk, kelpie, unicorn, wizard, hippogriff, etc. cultures and wars was just... indescribable. It was especially interesting to compare to muggle history and see what lined up and what didn’t like World War II and the war against Grindelwald. The ultimate switch from Grindelwald’s cause to Voldemort’s cause, for instance, was strange given how quickly they changed.

Grindelwald planned to eliminate the Statute of Secrecy entirely, replacing it with a wizarding council headed by himself and his partner to unite the separate worlds once more, but ultimately his partner, Albus Dumbledore, turned on him when he began to go about achieving his goals with violence and death. Dumbledore defeated his old friend only to face another “Dark” wizard, Voldemort, about fifty years later who was spouting another cause- the death of muggleborns and muggles in preservation of magical blood purity, which sounded suspiciously like inbreeding.

It was terribly fascinating and she couldn’t wait to go back to Flourish and Blott’s to get more books on the subjects. And apparently, Dumbledore was the headmaster of Hogwarts, but after that account of Grindelwald, she didn’t know why letting that man run a school was considered a good idea.

..............

It was while studying her Magical theory book again that she noticed something she hadn’t before. The Trace was a spell placed on all students once their names turned up on the Hogwarts registry for their first year. The Trace was a spell to track underage magic that used a wand. Thankfully, since she hadn’t been on the registry, she never received the Trace, and thus she wouldn’t get in trouble for illegal magic, though she learned that magical households like the Blacks, Malfoys, Longbottoms, etc. wouldn’t show magical usage because the Ministry- that is, the magical government- couldn’t tell who did the magic through the wards.

Petunia felt that the law was somewhat reasonable- people did tend to fear what they didn’t understand and thus magic was more dangerous to perform in front of non-magicals than in a magical household- but she also felt that the law favored magicals. Magicals could easily train since childhood in magic, even when their magical cores were unstable, but non-magicals wouldn’t even know about magic until they turned eleven and were introduced to an entirely different world that they were forced to accept or lose their magic over. The entire system was unfair and based upon the Magical Secrecy acts from centuries ago trying to keep the magicals “safe” from the non-magicals--separate but equal, in effect.

Petunia was drawing distinct parallels between Pureblood supremacy theories and the racism, but maybe she was reading too much into it. She hadn’t faced Purebloods in real life yet, not really, because she had become an exception to the rule all because one idiot didn’t know anything about magical bindings.

.........

Eventually, June turned to July, July turned to August, and August neared its end. September first loomed in the immediate future.

“Lily, do you have your list of supplies?”

“Yes, mum.” Petunia glanced at the list over Lily’s shoulders. She already had most of the books, but she couldn’t just go telling Lily or her parents that.

“While you go to the Apothecary, may I look at the bookstore again? I can pick up all of Lily’s books if you give me the money we have leftover from last trip.” Her mother seemed fine with the decision, but her father hesitated.

“Please, dad, I want to look at the books. They had such interesting fiction last year.”

“Oh, alright, but if anything happens, scream as loud as you can. Come along, into the car.”

..........

Flourish and Blotts was exactly how she remembered it. Light filtered through the windows- well, what part of them wasn’t obscured by the stacks and rows of books. Artificial sunlight kept the shop bright enough to see and Petunia found herself running her fingers along the spines.

She had brought her books- the ones she’d finished and taken careful notes on already- and planned to use the money to get books for her instead. Quickly, she collected the books for third year, more books on magical history, a few fiction tales, and books on some of the Hogwarts electives and extra-curriculars, namely Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures (a tie-in to DADA), Ancient studies, and Magical Theory. She didn’t know the next time she would come back, so she also grabbed a book on Potions theory and Potions for beginners so she could at least know how to make the things even if she couldn’t physically make anything yet. She just barely had time to shrink her purchases and re-size the books for Lily before her family returned, looking somewhat frazzled.

“What happened?”

“Oh, just a few as- _jerks_ decided to be mean to us because we’re m-muggles? Is that the right term?”

“Yes, daddy.”

“Did you get all the books?”

“Yes, and two fiction books for myself. Lily might want to look around anyway; they have so _many_ books; it’s incredible. You should look around too, dad. You don’t have to be magical to appreciate the fiction. There are goblins and house elves and tales of Merlin and it’s so brilliant, dad.” Her dad chuckled.

“Alright, Petunia, if you say so. Your mother went back to Gringotts to get your sister some extra pocket change for school and to get gifts with. While Lily looks around, is there any place you’d like to see?”

“Well, I really only got to see Gringotts and here. Can we window shop?”

“Of course.”

So Petunia finally got to see what all the stores were like while Lily looked absently around the store.

.......

September 1st came and Lily boarded the train to Hogwarts while Petunia waited another five days before her non-magical school would begin, meaning she had less time to practice magic. Sure, non-magical school was important (how did magicals get by without learning math, science, and english?), but it didn’t seem quite as interesting as magic. However, she really liked studying how magic and muggle science, math, and history compared.

For instance, magic could defy every scientific law apparently. Arithmancy which was like both divination and ward-building, but related to numbers, wasn’t a math course, but it was interesting how math featured into spell-making. Runes was also tied to spell-making which is why Petunia was so eager to get her hands on the book. If she could understand how to make a spell, she could better understand how to cast them and how magic itself worked. History was obvious, but there was so much more history than what was taught in her non-magical school! Two worlds were unfolding around her and she was doing her best to combine the two.

Maybe she would’ve been a Ravenclaw at Hogwarts, she thought.

No, best not dwell on that. She felt she’d been denied a possible future, but as a consequence, she had so much opportunity to work _outside_ a rigid class setting and managed to do all sorts of research on her own. She felt free and empowered. She was the happiest she could ever remember being.

\--------------

Lily returned for Christmas break this year, which coincided with Petunia’s break almost perfectly. Petunia was eager to have the free time to learn more magic, but she also really wanted a break.

“Hey, mum?” Lily asked.

“Yes, dear?”

“My friend from school and I were talking. Alice Fawley, she’s a pureblood witch interested in a sort of cultural exchange. She could stay here for a few days this summer and I could stay at her house for a few days. Please, mum!”

“Well, I’d have to talk to her parents. If we send out your owl, all I have to do is tell it her name, right? Not an address?”

“Yes, mum.”

“I’m so glad we got you Atalyia. Honestly though, phones might be a good idea.”

“Magic interferes with technology, mum. That’s why there isn’t any tv at Hogwarts.” Yet another thing for Petunia to research. There hadn’t been any troubles at home, but maybe magically concentrated areas like old wizarding homes and schools interfered with the waves some of the devices relied on?

“What about things powered by batteries, like flashlights?” Petunia asked, curious.

“I’m not sure. It doesn’t really matter anyways since I could just cast a _Lumos-_ that is, a spell to cast a light.” Petunia rolled her eyes.

“Aren’t you curious?”

“Why do you care?”

“Because isn’t it interesting, the differences between magic and mundane, how magic defies science as we know it-?”

“Oh, please, Tunie, don’t act like you care!”

“What are you even talking about?”

“I know you don’t like magic. You always lock yourself up in your room when I’m here and you never talk to Severus-”

“I stay in my room because it’s my break-time too! And I don’t talk to Severus because he isn’t nice to me.”

“You haven’t given him reason to be!”

“I haven’t given him reason not to be either unless he believes that blood crap!”

“Petunia, language! Now you two, you only have a few days together and the holidays are for family, please stop yelling at one another.”

“Yes, mum.” The sisters chimed. Again, the old argument was put on hold, but with a new twist. Petunia hating magic? As if.

........

Petunia’s fourteenth and then Lily’s thirteenth birthdays passed in a rush for both girls. Lily was busy being pestered by James Potter while Severus was avoiding her more and more. It wasn’t obvious, and he had perfectly good excuses most of the time, but when he was in front of his friends...

His friends were mostly Malfoy, Avery, Lestrange, and the youngest Black son. Pureblood elitists, though Severus himself was a halfblood through the Prince line. Lily missed her friend.

Petunia meanwhile was finishing the third year books as quickly as she could. She wasn’t taking tests on the material so she was taking a lot of notes and testing all the spells she could. And she learned glamours so she could go out in public and look older than she was. She could look like anybody! It was freeing in a strange way.

Lily and Petunia’s parents felt the distance growing between themselves and their daughters. They missed Lily terribly, but they hardly saw Petunia either. They figured she might be throwing herself into her studies. They could understand being jealous of her sister having magic. They were too old to be as jealous, but it certainly would be neat and useful.

Soon, however, school ended for the sisters for summer break.

........

“Lily, they’re showing the Breakfast Club on the telly. It’s the best movie ever!” Petunia called, taking a break. “You should invite Severus, he might like it.”

“No, Tunie, I’ve got to pack. I’m going to Alice’s home tomorrow.”

“You... didn’t tell me that.”

“I figured mum or dad would.” Lily called, rolling her eyes. Atalyia hooted from her perch for attention. Petunia followed Lily into her room and walked to Atalyia, petting her lightly through the bars of her cage.

“You shouldn’t keep her cooped up too much, it’s not good for her.”

“We talked about owls within the first week so everyone knew how to care for them. Keeping her to a normal schedule is more important.”

“But she’s not happy?” Petunia slipped the bird a treat while Lily’s back was turned.

“Actually, are you bringing her with you?” Lily froze.

“I- I didn’t even think about that. I can’t bring her, but I suppose I could ask Severus-”

“I thought she didn’t like Severus? She’s always pecking at his hair.” Lily’s shoulders slumped.

“I can get mum and dad to look after her.”

“Well, I can do it if you leave instructions.”

“... Fine. I’ll make you a schedule.”

.........

“Hey, pretty bird. Mind taking this to Flourish and Blotts in Diagon Alley?” Petunia asked the bird perched on her shoulder. Atalyia hooted and took the note in her beak, flying out the open window. Petunia had finally finished all of her year three books and wanted more for fourth year and other materials, and she knew that Flourish and Blotts had owl-order options. The note itself was simple:

_Dear owner of this establishment,_

_I’m aware that you offer owl-orders. Do you have a catalogue of sorts by which I may purchase some books without having to make the trip to Diagon Alley?_

_Sincerely,_

_Rosalie Ebony_

 

She had made up the name as a combination of her middle name (Rose) and her wand wood (Ebony) when she opened her Gringott’s account. She thought it was a suitable name since she didn’t want to reveal her identity. She just had a feeling that the name was important and since names have significance, she wanted one she could remember and enjoy.

............

Atalyia trilled outside her window. Petunia rushed to open the window for the poor creature to get out of the rain. She quickly grabbed a few treats and a mouse.

“Thanks, girl. I’ll clean you in a few minutes, alright?” Petunia grabbed the magazine and attached note from the bed where Atalyia had put it.

 

_Dear Mrs. Rosalie Ebony,_

_I hope this meets your needs. To order, put your wand tip on the box beside the title. Tap twice to undo the order. Send in the catalog with payment and the delivery will contain the books (minimized) and an updated catalogue._

_Sincerely,_

_Adrian Blott, owner/manager of Flourish & Blotts, est. 1654_

 

 

_Flourish and Blotts, mail-order catalogue:_

 

_Abandoning the World by Willow Nightfelder_

_In Nightfelder’s novel, she discusses her personal triumphs and failures in her path to finding peace amongst the chaos of the war with Grindelwald in this thrilling non-fiction autobiography account. 1G 5 Knuts_

 

_Accounts of Beasts by Cara Bestalow_

_This comparative tale of three creatures: merfolk, hippogriffs, and unicorns, studies the differences between the habits of underwater, air, and earth-bound creatures. To best understand the variety of the species, Bestalow has show how the creatures themselves live, how they interact with magic, and the lore associated with each. 2G 5 Sickles_

 

_Adding to Your Spellwork: The Use of Belief in Magicks by Ariana Nexus_

_This book explores the usage of belief and will in practical magic as well as elemental and dark magic. To understand how magic itself works, Nexus considers how a spell without will differs from one with. Even simple spellwork depends on visualization, spell-casting, and will, but most overlook the simple necessity of will because it seems obvious, but with more will-power, your spells will be infinitely stronger! 2G 3 Knuts_

 

_Aerial Aerobics: A Guide to the Flying Fantastical by Olerium Nyth_

_Aerial Aerobics explores the mythos of owls and their practical usage in magical society. From the original domestication of the owl in wizarding households to its introduction into the world of mailing, and subsequent fully-diurnal shift in schedules, this incredible animal cannot be taken for granted anymore. 1G 11 Sickles_

 

_Aerial Olympics by Mathew Lightfellow_

_Aerial Olympics is perhaps the most well-known book on flying techniques. As you fly through the novel, tips are included about how to handle the broom, safe speeds and altitudes, cushioning charms, and a guide to how high various ages should fly (i.e. no more than three feet for a toddler). Aerial Olympics is the perfect guide for flying beginners. 1G 8 Sickles 2 Knuts_

 

The list went on and on, thankfully in alphabetical order, but there was a box on the top-right hand corner of the front cover that once you put your wand tip on the box, you could organize the magazine by subject, genre, cost, length, popularity, or difficulty level.

Petunia was hooked.

..............

Sadly, she had to go to Gringotts before she could pay for her books. She carried the rest of her allowance to the bank when she arranged the same thing as the year before. Her bank account got a few extra galleons to keep it active and pay for the holding tax. Even the Gringotts account was in the name Rosalie Ebony once she added the account name the day after she got her wand.

She also figured she deserved to try the ice cream at Florean Fortescue’s.

All told, she had very little money left and she couldn’t be happier about it.

Eventually, though, Lily and Petunia’s father got a promotion that paid better, increasing the allowance of both girls.

................

When Lily returned, again, it was not alone. A young witch in muggle-style clothes (clearly Lily’s since they looked just a bit too small) with brown hair and a kind smile appeared with her mother who was dressed in robes still. Petunia would never understand the robes thing.

“Sorry, I hope I didn’t scare you, I’m just in a bit of a rush. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Evans. Alice, you play nice, alright?”

“Yes, mum.” The girl said, sighing. The woman pecked her on the cheek, smiling at the room’s occupants, and disappeared with another loud crack.

“Um, hi?” The girl said, attempting a smile. Petunia’s father was the first to recover from the shock.

“Oh, yes, hi. Um, I’m sure Lily can show you to her room since we don’t have a guest bedroom. I’m Mr. Evans, this is my wife, Mrs. Evans, and my other daughter, Petunia.”

“Hi.”

“Is there anything I can get you? Juice? Water?”

..........

“Oh, sorry!” Petunia cried, rescuing her water glass from splashing on Alice.

“No, it’s my fault. I didn’t mean to startle you! Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. If you don’t mind my asking, what are you doing up?”

“Oh, well, Lily was reading and I suppose she lost track of time and fell asleep. I slept a lot last night so I’m not tired yet. I was just coming down for a glass of water as well.”

“Sure, I’ll show you were we keep the glasses. So she left you with nothing to do?” Petunia asked, concerned.

“Well... yeah.” She laughed awkwardly. Petunia grew thoughtful.

“Have you ever seen anything on the telly?”

“The what?”

“You’ll see.”

 

“So they’re like portraits?”

“I’m not sure I understand. Here portraits are just paintings. They don’t move or speak or anything. Just look pretty.”

“Oh, well, portraits in the magical world interact with people. They’re meant to act exactly like the painting’s subjects, but while they can shift between frames, they can’t come out of their frames. They can’t move places so quickly though or...”

“Well, this is where people act out the scene after practicing a lot and then a device called a camera can either take a still photo- like a painting- or a video which is what you see here. It’s filmed and then shown on the telly a few times.”

“They don’t have to do it over and over?”

“No, think of the video camera as your eyes, seeing the scene. Then that is turned into a message of sorts that’s passed to the telly which shows it again for you. It’s all very much more complicated, trying to get by without magic, but there are things like this- very complex and incredible things- that make it seem at times that magic would hold back the world.”

“You don’t like magic?”

“Oh, no, that’s not what I meant at all. It’s just... if we had magic, why would we keep researching all of this stuff? If we could just use a spell, why learn a language or invent the telly? If we had magic, it just seems like we’d stop trying to _learn_. Don’t get me wrong, magic’s incredible, really, but there are benefits and downsides to each world, I suppose.”

“Hmm.”

Alice sat in silence as the telly played an episode of Dr. Who and Petunia walked back up to her room.

..........

“So, Alice, I’m sure you have questions, as do we. Do you mind?” Lily and Petunia’s mother, Evelyn, asked.

“No, but uh, I can’t guarantee I’ll know the answers.”

“How have you managed to keep an entire world from public knowledge?”

“Oh, well, there’s something called the Statute of Secrecy which the Ministry- that is, our government- enforces to keep the worlds separate.”

“Now that the Salem witch hunts are over and the world isn’t persecuting magic, do you think they’ll ever unite the worlds?” Petunia chimed.

“No, I don’t think anyone would want that really.” Alice said, looking uncomfortable.

“Do you get any sort of formal education before beginning Hogwarts?” The sisters’ dad questioned.

“Well, almost everyone gets tutored, but there isn’t any actual schooling. If not a tutor, most parents teach their children the basics- how to read and write, how to act in formal stuff, basic mathematics.”

“What about science, history, or a foreign language?”

“Well, we learn wizarding history in school. We skip science entirely because we have magic which defies science. And parents can get tutors for their children in foreign languages, but it’s not a course at school or anything. Some purebloods have their children learn French or German, but it’s not all that common.”

“What about muggle history? Like the world wars or the founding of America or anything?”

“World wars? What are you talking about?”

“You’re telling me you don’t know anything about Hitler?”

“What’s Hitler?”

“Wow. Magical Britain has got to get at least primary school. Wait, do students go to University or anything after Hogwarts or is that it?”

“First, what’s Hitler? Second, university? Is that more school? In Britain, we just have to go to Hogwarts for ages 11 to 17, then we’re legally adults. No other education is required, unless you’re going for a Potions Mastery or something of the like.”

While Lily looked ecstatic, Petunia, Evelyn, and Jonathan all looked suitably horrified and Lily began to recount what scant amount she remembered from primary school.

...........

Alice had to go home after only four days for some family reunion thing, but Petunia wished she could have stayed. She had so many questions!

Eventually the summer itself ended, as summers do, with excitement for some and disappointment for others. Lily was the former while Petunia was the latter, but mostly because she wouldn’t have much free time anymore for a while. Petunia and Lily’s parents were going to miss Lily, of course, and Petunia while she was at school, but they enjoyed the quiet sometimes too.

Lily, meanwhile, was doing her best not to show how upset she was. Severus wasn’t talking to her and she didn’t know why. He kept hanging out with those nasty Slytherins and spouting all that mess about blood purity. His father was a muggle! A terrible one, granted, but Severus knew Lily’s parents! They were good people, he couldn’t deny that. And she was a good person too. He didn’t hate her, she hoped. He’d been her friend and now she wasn’t so sure. If someone asked her if they were friends, could she still say yes?

She missed him. She didn’t want Petunia to be right.

Relations between the two girls were strained and for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why. Tunie was fine with the magic, as far as she could tell. Maybe jealous, since she read Lily’s books on magic for first year and asked all sorts of questions about the magical world.

Maybe she was just curious?

She knew Tunie didn’t have many friends at school, and then Lily comes home with a magic friend. Maybe she was just lonely, Lily realized. If mum and dad allowed it, she’d get a part-kneazle or something for her. She deserved a friend and a little magic, both. At least kneazles have a longer lifespan than regular cats.

..............

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This work is complete, but it may take me a few days to post it all because of technical difficulties. Please comment, it feeds my ego and encourages me to write more!


	3. Chapter Three

“Come along, girls! We want to beat the traffic to the Leaky!”

“Coming, dad!” Lily and Petunia chimed. Again, Petunia planned to swap the books, but she’d have to make sure she had enough time alone at Flourish and Blotts. She had just barely managed to finish the fourth year books she’d owl-ordered and the subsequent outside materials. She was running out of book space and she was just lucky her parents didn’t question the glamoured titles.

When they finally got to Diagon Alley, Tom having to open the door again because Lily was underage, Petunia took the list of books and turned to her parents.

“Same as last year? It’ll save time. Gringotts first though, obviously.”

“Up to you, dear. You can decide while we’re in Gringotts.”  
“Yes, dad.”

“This ought to be enough money, but come find me if it’s not. You can get a few books as well.”

“Okay, dad. Thank you!” Petunia wandered off to Flourish and Blotts while Lily was sized for new robes since she couldn’t fit in hers anymore and extension charms only went so far- certainly not enough for her growth spurt. Thankfully when she was finished, Lily blushingly offered Petunia some magical feminine products.

Oh, yes, there were certainly benefits to magic.

During the Flourish and Blotts trip itself, Petunia collected the year five course books, more fiction, and books on spell-creation as well as advanced runes and apparation. She  _really_  didn’t want to mess up apparation. She looked at alchemy too since it was a combination of transfiguration and potions, in a sense. She figured she’d have to wait years to finally begin studying potions. Now that she had the money, she also bought another book on Magical Theory and a book that looked particularly interesting on Ancient Studies- the study of magic in ancient cultures, like ancient Egypt. It would certainly help in understanding spells and would be cultural as well. She managed to swap the books and get 23 pages into one of her books before Lily and her parents returned.

“Did you get all the books?”  
“Everything I could. This didn’t have anything about the electives classes.” Petunia said, taking out the note. Lily flushed.

“Oh, that was on the sheet I had with me. Oops. I’m gonna take Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes.”

“What took so long anyway? You were gone for ages.”

“Robes fittings and since I can go to Hogsmeade this year, I needed extra warm clothes. And then the apothecary had a mishap. Someone had mislabelled two of the ingredients apparently, selling the wrong one, and almost causing a really bad explosion. The guy was furious and screaming in Dutch.”

“Yikes! At least it’s over. Have you gotten everything else you need?”

“Yes, but I want to go exploring now. Can we mum, dad, please?” She said earnestly, using her best pout.

“Oh, alright, Petunia, look after your sister. I saw Mrs. Fawley by the Apothecary and I’d like to have a word with her while she’s here.”

“Okay, dad! Come on, Tunie.”

“Stop calling me that! Dad, please stop letting her call me that.” Petunia whined.

“Lily, you know she doesn’t like that nickname! Don’t torment your sister.”

“But, daaaad,-”

“But nothing, Lily. Go on.”

\------------

Christmas break was a strange affair. Lily refused to talk to or about Severus, but complained quite vocally about some guy who had a crush on her- James, she thought. He was apparently in a prank group called the Marauders; one of the friend’s was even a werewolf, she said!

Their parents couldn’t seem to decide between horror and intrigue and Petunia chose to leave the conversation to her family. She’d had a nasty headache for hours after trying to study for the Latin mid-term examination that awaited her on the first day back from break.

Lily needed to go to Gringotts again to get some money for Christmas shopping in Hogsmeade and tried not to think about how her sister walked out of the room once the conversation turned again to magic.

\--------------

And so another school year of the same passed. Lily did well in school and enjoyed her third year, new classes, and new privileges. Petunia struggled to finish fifth year material and study her non-magical courses, as both were becoming much harder. About a two-thirds through the school year, she finally contacted the Ministry to sign up to take her O.W.L.s even though she was only fourteen. She practiced glamours in front of the mirror constantly. She signed up to take Charms, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, History of Magic, Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, Muggle Studies, and Magical Theory.

She was legally obligated to take Potions too, but she was prepared to do poorly on it since she could take it again next year or later. She knew the theory, but she’d never physically created a potion before. When her parents took a day trip to France, Petunia got her friend to drive her near the Leaky Cauldron. She got money exchanged at Gringotts and bought basic potions supplies to perform the O.W.L. potions a few times.

She knew she was getting ahead of herself, skipping so much, but she figured she’d like to know how she’d do. As it turned out, it would be passable, but nothing extraordinary, though she felt it was extraordinary since she’d never made a single potion before. She figured it was a bit like cooking, just far more finicky.

She felt like she was up to her ears in books and notes. Thankfully, she could have all her O.W.L.s overseen two weeks before her school examinations would start. She practiced the glamour again.  
The disguise was nothing special. She changed her hair color to brown with highlights, she donned plain glasses, made herself an inch or two taller, and she made her face a little more heart-shaped. She didn’t wear robes since they weren’t actually required to take the O.W.L.s, though she would be one of the only people taking the tests outside of Hogwarts within Britain.

Terrified at how little time she had, she studied frantically for the whole month. She had to figure out how to get to the Ministry to take the examinations.

.............

The Ministry was certainly a unique place. She’d heard about the toilet entrances, but chose instead to use the telephone booth entrance where she said her name was Rosalie Ebony and she was here to take her O.W.L.s. She got a pin and everything, though frustratingly, she was made to use a quill which annoyed her to no end. She had to ask for directions a total of three times and just barely managed to get to the room in time the first day. She had to come back over four consecutive days to finish all the exams.

The written and practical aspects of Transfiguration, Charms, DADA (she tried a Patronus for the first time for bonus points and managed a lot of mist!), Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures (which was certainly a surprise), and Muggle Studies went swimmingly and she was almost certain she passed all of them. The Herbology written portion went well, but she wasn’t sure about the practical, as it seemed a little different than the picture in her textbook.

History of Magic was really easy since it mostly focused on the Goblin wars, indicating that the tests were almost solely based on the Hogwarts curricula, but didn’t have a practical test for obvious reasons, just as Magical Theory had no physical spellwork; she did get to share theories with the proctor since she was the only one taking the test (which sadly cost money). She was certain that she did really well- at least enough to please the proctor greatly- but since it was all conjecture, it really could go either way.

She had to wait until her last exam was finished at school for her results to finally arrive a week before her report card.

........

Ancient Runes - O

Care of Magical Creatures - E

Charms - O

Defense Against the Dark Arts - E

Herbology - E

History of Magic - O

Magical Theory - O

Muggle Studies - O

Potions - A

Transfiguration - O

 

Total: 6 O’s, 3 E’s, 1 A’s, 0 P’s, 0 D’s, 0 T’s

O - Outstanding

E - Exceeds Expectations

A - Acceptable

P - Poor

D - Dreadful

T - Troll

 

She had done really, really well, especially since she hadn’t had any classroom guidance. She got her non-magical report card soon after and had relatively good grades for that as well. Overall, she was very happy.

Now she had to start preparing for N.E.W.T.s. And learn how to drive.

...........

She was still on sixth year material when Lily invited James and Sirius to spend the day. She’d closed her door, but hadn’t locked it because her parents were always suspicious of locked doors. She was trying to finish her book on apparation which she hadn’t attempted just yet; she was reading the book for a second time just to make sure she wouldn’t splinch herself when the door clumsily burst open.

“Oh.” The guy looked surprised to see her.

“Sorry, I was looking for the loo. You’re Lily’s sister, uh- Petunia, right?”

“Yeah, Petunia Evans. And you are?”

“Sirius Black.”

“Well, Sirius, the loo is the next door on this side of the hall.”

“Yeah, course. What’re you reading, if you don’t mind my asking.”

“Oh, it’s just something for the break.” Petunia said, wandlessly willing a glamour onto the cover. Since her magic had been bound, what little magic she had access to had to grow on its own. Once reunited to the bound magic (which had grown in an attempt to escape the binding), her power was impressive for her age allowing her a few nifty tricks like the ability to do a little wandless magic and silent casting.

“Don’t you have summer work at Hogwarts?”

“Not much, which is just as well if you ask me.” Petunia smiled.

“There are times where I get sick of schoolwork as well.”

“In that case, allow me to continue to distract you from it.” Petunia snorted at the pickup line, recognizing the flirting for what it was, though she was surprised this guy from a Pureblood supremacy-theory family would dare deem to talk to a muggle.

“Then tell me about yourself. Sirius after the dog star?”

“Black family tradition to name the Black family men after stars and the girls after flowers. My name turned out to be ironic, but-”

“You’re the werewolf?”

“What?” He asked, looking truly started. “James.” He whisper-growled.

“I talked to Lily actually. She might have figured it out herself.”

“Maybe and no, I’m not the werewolf. What if I was?”

“It’s daylight.” Petunia countered. Sirius smirked.

“Fair enough.”

...........

“I really ought to get back to Lily and James. I bet they think I’ve locked myself in the loo. It really was nice meeting you, Petunia. You’re nothing like Lily says.”

“Wh- what does she say about me?” Petunia asked, upset. Seeing this, Sirius backtracked.

“Oh, nothing, nothing. That’s why I was so surprised.” He said, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. Petunia sighed.

“You have a tell. And you’re pants at lying convincingly.”  
“Sorry.” He winced.

“She just didn’t make you out to be the most friendly or accepting person.”

“Why? I’ve been with her this whole time, before and after she got her letter.”

“She’s under the impression that you’re... jealous.”

“Jealous?” She questioned. Sirius nodded.

“We will be having words. Jealous, my arse. I’ve been nothing but helpful.” Petunia grumbled. Sirius took the opportunity to make a hasty exit with a deep bow.

“Farewell, my lady!”

“Goodbye, Sirius. Have a nice summer!”

 

“Hey, Lils, your sister seems just fine. Don’t know why you say all that crap about her. She was really nice.”

.................

Sixth year material was really difficult to try to master while simultaneously studying to become an animagus and learn apparation. It would save plenty of time, but she had to be very careful. The one time she attempted it, all was fine except for a cut on her arm that was bleeding sluggishly. She didn’t want to risk a worse injury if she could help it.

Truthfully, there was reason that apparation was only taught to sixteen-year-old and older students and that’s because their bodies have finished maturing and their magic has settled. Having gone through puberty already, her body had finished maturing and her magic was almost completely settled since she was fifteen now.

Becoming an animagus though? It’d been done by twelve year olds, but it was also dangerous and legally had to be registered in the Ministry. After what little she’d heard about the Ministry and the magical government itself, she figured it might be best not to register.

The worst part about becoming an animagus was that she would have to brew a potion- a very complicated potion that would take about two-weeks. She’d also have to get ahold of a mandrake leaf to hold in her mouth for an entire month, god only knows why.

She had a tough year ahead of her and she couldn’t be happier about it. She supposed brewing for the Animagus transformation would be enough studying for her Potions N.E.W.T. which was legally required. She also decided to keep going with Alchemy and take the N.E.W.T. at the end of the year if she felt sufficiently confident. School was tiresome because she was working herself ragged.

Suddenly, being so tired, it almost didn’t seem worth it to continue the brutal pace she had been managing for years- but then she remembered how close she was to finishing. She would be able to drive soon. She would be an adult in the wizarding world in less than two years. She wondered how that worked since she wouldn’t be an adult in the non-magical world for another year after that. She would want to continue her education, theoretically, in the muggle world and further her informal magical education at the same time.

She wondered if there were any wizarding classes on magical creature cultures or any comparative classes between magicals and non-magicals. She felt as though both her educations were comprised of puzzle pieces and somehow, the pieces just needed to be rearranged and examined closely to reach some profound understanding.

It was silly, of course, but she was still thinking of the magical and non-magical worlds as just that- two separate worlds, when in fact, they were two sides of the same coin. They diverged from a common point in an attempt at self-preservation and evolved separately, only the non-magical world was forced to evolve, to study and create, to change, while the British magical world was slowly allowed to stagnate. What could force magical Britain to continue to evolve while they’re so set in their ways and the people in power are mostly pureblood supremacists?

Speaking of: through Lily, Petunia heard whispers of whispers of Voldemort, the first dark wizard in Britain after Grindelwald. Everyone knew of him, of course, but suddenly, his attacks were more public, more ostentatious. Everyone knew that Dumbledore was the only person alive that Voldemort feared and they seemed to meet infrequently on some informal battlefield, never reaching a final conclusion. Some people think it’s all hogwash; some people are too scared to claim belief in the shadowy figure. Some other people were forming an Order to defeat Voldemort once and for all.

No one knew much about the Order, since it was all rumor, but supposedly, the Order was composed of the best and brightest witches and wizards who didn’t believe in pureblood supremacy, led by Albus Dumbledore. Nothing had been done yet of course since Voldemort’s attacks were infrequent and chaotic- a scare tactic. No one quite knew what he wanted to accomplish on such a small scale. He killed off muggles and muggleborns he happened across, though the Ministry was quick to cover up most of it.

There was most certainly fear.

Petunia figured she could fairly well handle herself since she didn’t have to worry about the Trace, but Lily and her parents couldn’t. She wanted to drill them, have them practice getting to safe houses, make portkeys, but she didn’t want to scare them, didn’t want to make it all seem real. Hell, if she was older, she might even have tried to join the Order if she could ever find it or anything.

As it was, she decided to wait it out for a while. She just hoped everyone she cared for would be alright.

.............

The year passed in a blur of studying and infrequent sleep. Nightmares were increasingly common as news of Voldemort slowly but surely spread, each tale nastier than the last. He was collecting soldiers.

A war was brewing, she could tell, as could Lily. But when?

...........

Severus wasn’t talking to her. At all. He sneered and laughed, but he never talked to Lily. She didn’t know what she’d done, how she’d let him go.

He was one of them now.

She wondered if there had ever been a chance to keep him from that fate, if she had merely failed him.

She may have failed him, but she wouldn’t fail Tunie. She wouldn’t.

.............

“Tunie, are you here?!”

“Lily, I’m right behind you, you don’t have to yell! And stop calling me that!”

“Sorry.” She said, unapologetically. “I got you something.”

“You already sent me my birthday present though?”

“Well, yeah, but I figured out why you’ve been so distant. You don’t have friends, so you’re lonely!”

“Excuse me?! I  _do_ have friends.” Well, she regularly corresponded, as best she could, with Adrian Blott, and a Pureblood fellow at Hogwarts who’d offered to help her learn about the wizarding world’s customs that Blott knew named Frank Longbottom, and she had a few friends at school like Lizabeth, Laura, Penny, and Matthew.

“Well, you never invite anyone over.”

“You wouldn’t know that! You’re always off at Hogwarts.”

“Yes, that’s  _why_  I brought you something. Well, someone. I think it’d be someone. Ugh, grammar. Okay, go see who Atalyia’s playing with in the kitchen.” Petunia rolled her eyes and went to see which friend Lily’d brought around this time, only to be surprised. It wasn’t a person- it was a pet.

_Petunia’s_  pet now.

The large kitten pawed half-heartedly at the hooting bird, head cocked as it stared at the figure, clearly bored. When Petunia entered the room fully, the cat seemed to perk up, ears straightening out and Petunia finally realized what it was- or what it was partially, at least- a part-Kneazle.

“You- you got me a cat.” She said, shocked.

“No, I got you a part-cat, part-Kneazle. It’s basically a cat though, but it’s super loyal and smart. Do you like him?” Petunia crept forward to the cat silently while the cat watched her and Lily backed out of the room to provide some privacy. The cat walked up to her as well and stared while Petunia finally squatted and reached a hand out. At first, it looked like the cat would ignore her entirely, but finally it sniffed her hand and seemed to like whatever it found, beginning to purr as it brushed fully against her hand to be petted.

“Does he have a name yet?” Petunia asked, not looking away.

“Well, the shop owner called him Bantam because he was the tiniest in the litter, but he said you could change the name and he’d respond to it.”

“Now, what to call you, you handsome devil?”

“Are you talking about me?” James called from the door, startling Petunia and the cat, who jumped into her arms.

“I think he likes you.” The cat glared at him.

“I don’t think he particularly likes  _you_  after that introduction. You must be James.”

“Nice to meet you, Petunia, was it?”

“Yes.”

“And that cat’s name?”

“Undecided yet.” Petunia said, putting down the cat who decided to play with Atalyia again and jumped for the bird, instead knocking over Lily’s previously-upright trunk.

“How about Loki?” The cat meowed, almost as in approval.

“Loki it is then.”

“So, James, if you don’t mind my asking, what are you doing here?”

“Lils invited me and the other Marauders. I think Peter, Sirius and Remus’ll be by in a few. My father’s gonna drop ‘em off.”

“James, why don’t you go upstairs and I’ll meet you in a few.” Lily called, re-entering briefly.

“Sure thing.”

“Don’t say a word.” Lily said, turning to Petunia.

“Why would I say anything?”

“Because they’re  _boys.”_

“I’m friends with Matthew.” Petunia said, confused.

“Who?”

“Guy from school. Point is, you can be friends with guys.”

“Well- good.” Lily stammered. There was a loud crack coming from the front lawn that both girls recognized as apparation.

When the two went outside, their parents meeting them to find the source of the commotion, they found Mr. Potter dusting off his auror robes and three boys that each looked a little green around the gills. Petunia wore a disapproving frown; if magicals wanted their worlds separate, why allow a magical police officer to break the Statute? Maybe he was against it?

“‘Lo, Petunia.”

“Hello, Sirius.”

“Well, I’d best be off boys. I’ll come get you in a few hours.”

“Feel free to appear within the house next time and not the lawn.” Petunia called. Mr. Potter blushed and Sirius cracked up.

“I’m sorry, um, who are all of you?”

“You didn’t tell mum and dad?” Petunia rounded on Lily.

“It was a last-minute decision!” She didn’t even seem sheepish.

“Don’t know if you remember me, Mr. and Mrs. Evans. Sirius Black.”

“Nice to see you again of course, Sirius.” Sirius gave a large smile and the taller of the two strangers stepped forward.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Remus Lupin.” Petunia almost choked. If she was right and he was the werewolf, then his name was ironically practically Wolf Wolf.

“P-Peter Pettigrew, Mr. and Mrs. Evans.” Loki casually walked through the front door and toward the group. The cat seemed wary of both Sirius and Remus- dogs, you know- but saw Peter and stalked up to him.

And lifted a leg.

Peter seemed confused at first, but then a golden arch came pouring and Peter hopped back immediately while Remus tried not to laugh and Sirius nearly busted a gut.

Sirius walked up to the cat and picked him up when he was done. Loki began to squirm until Sirius began petting his head.

“Good kneazle.” Sirius cackled. Peter was frantically wiping his shoe on the grass while Petunia went to Sirius, while apologizing to Peter.

“I’m so sorry! I guess he’s not... house-trained yet.”

“Yeah. I see.” He said sourly.

“Where’s James?” Remus asked.

“Upstairs already.” Lily replied while Petunia began fussing over her new cat. She needed supplies if she was gonna own a kitty.

“Lily, now hold on, you can’t just-”

“Bye, mum, dad. I’ll entertain the guests!” Lily exclaimed, leaving the room in a hurry. Sirius and Peter followed quickly and Remus hung back to apologize since they thought Lily had warned her parents and then followed the boys. 

.................

Thankfully, the unexpected guests were enough of distraction that Petunia called Atalyia to owl-order some more books for her so she could begin the seventh year coursework. Books were expensive! Money, even with her fairly large allowance, was becoming a problem. She should really look about getting a job... 

The elder Evanses were frantically trying to clean the house and prepare a large supper for the 4 extra boys. Taking pity on her mom and dad, Petunia eventually went upstairs to Lily’s room, pausing in front of the door when she could make out their speech.

“-ey say You-Know-Who’s actually gonna start a war. Your parents are gonna be targets, as will you and your sister, Lils.” James said.

“Stop using that nickname! And I’m uncomfortably aware, thank you.”

“Do they even know?”

“What would I say? Why would I want them to hear about a war that might not affect them, just upset them?”

“They’re in danger, Lily.” Remus chimed solemnly.

“I’ll tell them  _if_  it becomes clear that they could be targeted.”

“But, Lily-” Peter interrupted.

“No. And that’s final.” Petunia knocked on the door.

“Is takeout alright with everyone? I brought the menu.”

 

It was a terrifying thought that Lily might not even tell Petunia about the war, that she was in danger. She resolved to tell her parents so they could be aware, even if they’d tell her off for spying. She hadn’t known how much of a threat He had become. It wasn’t fair to leave them in the dark, it just wasn’t.

..................

The return to school for the two sisters was more amicable this year. Lily still hadn’t stopped calling Petunia “Tunie” but now Petunia called Lily “Lils” in return. Turnabout was fair play.

Loki was a mischievous little fellow, living up to his name. He looked strange, being half-Kneazle, but he was passable for a cat and wormed his way into Petunia’s heart almost instantaneously (and Sirius and James had a strange soft spot for the kitten as well). Her parents were upset about not having been forewarned, but Petunia explained that she hadn’t exactly known either. Lily had always been pretty impulsive, but had thankfully purchased the necessary food and grooming materials for the first month, as well as a magically charmed litter box.

Lily headed back to Hogwarts and Petunia went back to her school and tried to focus. Learning so much material nonstop was really starting to affect her, but she also loved the fast pace. She’d been effectively alternating her studies, managing a year’s material during her school year and another year’s material during the summer, except she took almost an entire year to study the seventh year materials and took the rest of the summer to finish preparing for the NEWT exams, unsure what might be covered but determined to be ready.

She still felt hopelessly underprepared. She’d made thousands of notecards, studied dozens of books, and filled over 7 journals with information--but these tests were important and were all scheduled for May 13-19, which meant she would have to apparate from her house within half an hour of getting home after school, just to take two very lengthy examinations that would make her feel brain dead, while managing her other schooling. She’d successfully managed apparition, of course, but she felt stressed to the point of breaking down. What she wouldn’t give for a nap.

Thankfully, she had a rest day on the 16th, but she had to take 10 examinations--all her OWL courses: Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, DADA, Transfiguration, Potions, Muggle Studies, Herbology, Magical Theory, and History of Magic. She felt like she was going to implode.

..................

Day 1, she felt alright about, having taken Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies; since Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies both didn’t have a practical portion, she knew she did well on those.

Day 2 was more brutal, being Potions and DADA which both required a practical portion along with the written portion, though she was fairly familiar with the potion requested and the Defense spells--and she handled the Boggart well.

Day 3 had the Care of Magical Creatures (a Hippogriff, Flobberworm, and Puffskein) and Transfiguration examinations (turning a horse into a tea cup and back--extra points for the tea cup’s design!), but after the past few days, leaving the Ministry after that last day felt like a breath of fresh air, and then she had a day to study before doing it all over again and she even skipped muggle school for a day to do so.

On the 17th of March, she took the Charms examination (which included a glamour, ironically), followed the next day by Herbology (mandrakes are the worst on your ears), and finally, on the 19th, she took History of Magic as well as Magical Theory, which ensured that her week of straight examinations ended on a positive note. She figured if she ever looked at a notecard again, it’d be too soon. She wouldn’t see her results until mid-April, but for now, she just wanted to collapse in her bed and not move for a dozen or more hours.

Sleep sounded like the best course of action.

...............

Within two weeks, she took her final examinations at her non-magical school. Granted, she found the subjects by themselves more boring, but everything remained interesting through comparison to magical versions and how they coincide. Thankfully, she didn’t need quite as many notecards. Her parents honestly looked worried at her notecard usage and piles (and binders...) of notes.

...............

She passed her NEWTs. No, she did more than pass. She did  _well._

Ancient Runes - O

Care of Magical Creatures - O

Charms - O

Defense Against the Dark Arts - O

Herbology - E

History of Magic - O

Magical Theory - O

Muggle Studies - O

Potions - E

Transfiguration - O

 

Total: 8 O’s, 2 E’s, 0 A’s, 0 P’s, 0 D’s, 0 T’s

O - Outstanding

E - Exceeds Expectations

A - Acceptable

P - Poor

D - Dreadful

T - Troll 

 

She had no earthy idea how she managed an E in Potions, but she was ecstatic. She could go into most wizarding fields without complication. She had to finish her muggle schooling, but the world was opening up to her. Her hard work had paid off--now she had to take advantage of it. But she was still only 16. Well, she could always look about studying up for magical post-Hogwarts equivalent education.

..............

Magical post-Hogwarts education was exceptionally specialized: further education existed for Healing, becoming an Auror, or becoming a Solicitor. No other fields  _required_  further schooling, though you could apparently hire tutors for higher education, said Frank Longbottom in his newest letter. He offered to try to help find her a good tutor, if she wanted one, but honestly she needed a bit of time to collect herself. They didn’t require extra schooling, even to be a Ministry employee? Nothing?

She thought that half of the wizarding world really was in the dark ages still. At least she was looking forward to getting to meet him this summer after all those exchanged letters.

Well, she supposed, she had the NEWT requirements. She might as well continue her education with what interested her most: the history of magic and magical cultures/creatures and magical theory. Besides, she still wanted to learn to become an animagus and, just in case, she wanted to learn more about defense, so that she could protect herself--and warding so she could protect her parents! Wards sounded interesting.


	4. Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR  
The summer before Lily’s 5th year at Hogwarts was fairly calm. While Lily begged to let Alice come over again and for visits from the Marauders (the name for the group of guys that Lily was friends with), she was otherwise more subdued. The year itself was fairly tame, until Lily sent a letter about what had happened with Severus. Knowing of the wizarding world, it wasn’t hard for Petunia to gather just what he had said to her--what word he had used.  
Mudblood.  
Honestly, if people didn’t see the racism (did they count as different races?) in wizarding society, then they were blinding themselves. Maybe if they had paid attention to muggle history, they wouldn’t be spouting such nonsense.  
The trip to Diagon Alley was pleasant and Petunia again switched out the books, but this time when she was reading afterwards, her eyes came to rest on a sign by the front door: Help Wanted.  
Dare she?  
As she traveled back with her parents and sister, she absently considered the possibility while Lily unsuccessfully tried to get her sister’s attention. Lily wondered if she really was losing her sister. She missed when they were close, but looking back, she came to a startling realization: she couldn’t remember the last time she and her sister had tried to spend one-on-one time together. Maybe it was partly her fault for always inviting her school friends over, but she couldn’t be entirely to blame for the relationship falling apart. She could, however, be the one to fix it.  
...............  
“Hey, mum! Dad! I got the job!”  
“The one at the bookstore a few blocks down?”  
“Yes!”  
Well, Rosalie Ebony got the job at Flourish and Blotts anyway.  
................  
She started on a Thursday, choosing to work after school on weekdays and for longer on weekends. She really didn’t know what to expect, but she was familiar with most of the catalogue and had corresponded regularly with Adrian on a formal and informal basis, considering him a friend. That did not mean, however, that she knew much about the man himself, just that he was the many-times-great grandson of one of the founders of Flourish & Blotts and that he had a wicked sense of humor, while showing a vast knowledge for most subjects.  
She wasn’t expecting the father figure he grew to be, but she appreciated it nonetheless.  
Finally, someone shared her passion for knowledge and though he hinted that he knew she wore a disguise, he never asked her about it or seemed inclined to distrust her. She knew she had found a life-long friend in Adrian.  
.................  
Life never slowed down for Petunia. In fact, sometimes time just seemed to fly by. She’d look up and a whole month would have disappeared! Because Adrian was really nice (and secretly did the same thing, though he wouldn’t admit it), Petunia had full access to any books Flourish and Blotts had in stock, meaning that she had allowance money and the money from the job itself that she didn’t need to spend on F&B’s books anymore. She devoured books in the little moments between school, homework, studying, work, and remembering to eat and sleep. She hardly remembered to send letters to her sister, not that she had access to Atalyia much. Her parents were concerned that her job was taking so much of her time, but she assured them she was handling it and not about to have a nervous breakdown.  
She also had learned to respond to the name Rosalie or even Rose or Rosie, as Adrian had taken to calling her. Her glamours were absolutely fantastic by necessity since she didn’t want to take potions all the time. Plus, Adrian might be a little wigged out to know he’d hired a sixteen year old girl instead of a nineteen year old catching up on muggle schooling missed while attending wizarding school.  
She didn’t have much free time (or any really), but when the shop wasn’t busy, Adrian allowed her to work in the corner on a research paper (which was starting to seem more like a book to be honest) regarding muggle and wizarding cultures. She’d love to turn it in as a thesis paper, but with magical schooling completed and muggle schooling involving no knowledge of the wizarding world, she considered publishing it as an independent research paper as the best option.  
Adrian, of course, was encouraging her. She’d written research papers for school before, but this proved especially tiresome, given that it was lengthier and more complex than her usual school papers. She decided, after hours and hours and hours of research to make two separate research papers: firstly, one theorizing how muggle technology and magic could coexist even in magically rich places (as the home computer was growing increasingly popular) and secondly, one acting as a sort of historical anthology about magical and muggle cultures and history, explaining both the magical and muggle aspects of things, from the invention of muggle electricity to the evolution of pureblood ideology.  
She hadn’t quite understood the size of her undertaking until she had already typed nearly fifty pages and still had barely finished a fifth of one paper. This would be a job spanning a year and a half, in total, before she declared the work complete and as a birthday present, Adrian presented her with papers offering for Flourish & Blott’s to publish the papers as research novels.  
She might have cried a little, but no one but Adrian and Loki need know that.  
.................  
While still completing the draft, Petunia barely noticed as winter approached, but she certainly noticed when Lily came home and pointedly ignored Severus, who repeatedly tried to reach out to her. However, what she didn’t understand was why Lily ignored her too. What had she done? She’d sent letters and they were always nice, even though Lily almost never wrote back more than a few sentences.  
She didn’t find out why until the very end of break.  
....................  
“Why are you ignoring me?”  
“Go away, Tunie.”  
“Not until you stop pouting like a five year old and tell me what I’ve done!”  
“Nothing! You haven’t done anything so go away!”  
“Then why are you avoiding me?!”  
“Because... ugh! Because you have it so easy, yet you’re always talking about how little time you have and how you have to go to your job! It’s like you’re avoiding me and that’s not even by biggest problem!”  
“I’m not avoiding you! I do actually have work, thank you, work that I enjoy. I am busy, but it’s not like you ever made time for me. You just invited your school friends over without any warning and hung out with them the whole time; I figured you’d do the same as always. You don’t get to blame me for your mistakes.”  
“Mistakes? My magic is a mistake?”  
“How did you even twist my words so much that that’s the message you got? The mistake was ignoring me and crawling back when you’re bored or when you want to prove how altruistic of a person you are: oh, hey, I’ll go see how Petunia’s doing, since it’s not like she has actual stuff to do too!”  
“Oh, boo hoo, at least you’re not wrapped up in a war!”  
“A war that would affect me too--or did you forget?”  
“How did you know about that? Were you spying on me?”  
“Sirius told me. Because he’s actually a decent person like that.”  
“He and I will be having words.”  
“You do that.” Petunia said. When it became clear Lily wouldn’t say anymore, she left. She figured her sister and herself just had too incompatible of views to get along very well. Lily, meanwhile, had a lot to think about. She didn’t just see Tunie when she got bored of her other friends, right? Right?  
With sinking horror, she realized how very little she’d actually been aware of her own sister. And after she’d promised to stay close to her! Something had to change and soon, or she risked never being able to reconcile with her sister again.  
.......................  
Lily’s sixth year and Hogwarts and Petunia’s second year at Flourish & Blott’s passed much as they had the last year. James decided to ask Lily on an actual date instead of pulling her pigtails and Petunia continued work on Technology, Magic, and You and Worlds Collide: A Guide to Muggle and Magical World History. Adrian was helpfully providing reference books and time at work, encouraging her all the while.  
Her parents remained unaware, of course, believing that she was working on a huge school paper. They’d long ago grown accustomed to the piles and piles of books, though Petunia had shrunk several and put them in a trunk. Being seventeen and nearly done with school, she considered her options. Adrian had offered to let her move into the extra bedroom upstairs at Flourish and Blotts whenever she wanted, not even minding her pet kneazle. She figured it’d be cheaper than living in a University dorm.  
She’d already decided on her University and had applied as early as she could. Thankfully, she’d researched the University from the magical aspect too and discovered that it had ties to the magical world and was thus a bit more extensive in courses offered than most schools.  
Her parents were fairly uninterested in her affairs, having never even been to her workplace. They did, however, ask about her dating life after finding a (thankfully non-compromising) letter from Frank.  
Honestly, she’d been so busy that she hadn’t really thought about dating. Most of her friends were pairing up, but she was happy enough to remain single for now.  
Meanwhile, Lily and James had started dating and Lily refused to talk to Severus at all, though she refused to talk to James for a while there as well, after some prank. Lily sent Petunia a lot of letters, mostly about her coursework and classes, as if in an attempt to apologize. Petunia wrote back about her own classes and friends; the words felt hollower than they should.  
.................  
For winter break, Lily returned alone and tried to stick to Petunia the whole time. Honestly, Petunia was pretty upset by it, not getting a moment alone unless she was at work, but she also understood that Lily was trying to return to the days where they were friends and she couldn’t fault her for that. By the time the break was over, they were arguably closer, though Lily felt that Petunia was keeping something from her--a boyfriend perhaps?  
................  
The end of the school year came sooner than either girl was ready for. Lily looked haggard, even with a smile on her face. Whenever anyone asked, she’d say she was fine. Petunia finished her novels and began another project--Defending Your Muggle Friends and Family, A Guide. She kept this one brief and had it published, again by Adrian, within the year.  
She had a steady income, and some close friends. She had her job and studies. She had her cat.  
If (when) her sister decided to ignore her again for some reason, well then that was fine.  
Perfectly fine.  
................  
Lily felt horrible. She knew she was being mean to Petunia because she was jealous. Her life was so simple, free of the politics of running between the muggle and magical worlds. Free from the worry of war.  
Just because she recognized her jealousy didn’t mean she could stop it. She didn’t talk to Petunia much that summer.  
.................  
Petunia began attending university in August, intending to get a Bachelor of Art’s degree in English. The freer schedule allowed her to have more time to herself, and though she found herself missing the hustle and bustle of before, she also enjoyed the breather. She spent more time with Adrian and corresponded more with Frank. She kept in touch with Laura, Lizabeth, Penny, and Matthew. She even tried dating Laura for a bit, but they were better off as friends. Vernon Dursley kept trying to ask her out, but she wouldn’t say yes to him in a thousand years. To be perfectly honest, he creeped her out a little.  
Lily’s seventh year at Hogwarts began on September 1st. She seemed, if anything, more stressed than she had been at the beginning of the year, though she seemed ecstatic to return to Hogwarts (and her boyfriend) where she had more to focus on than her dread for the impending war. Muggleborns and their families were being attacked.  
She thought Severus might be one of the Death Eaters following Voldemort.  
She was afraid.  
.................  
While Petunia tried to stay updated on magical affairs, she rarely heard about the deaths. There were whispers, but that’s all they were. The Minister was trying to hide the likelihood of war so he could be re-elected. She had only heard faint traces of the Order of the Phoenix. She didn’t ever consider that her sister, at only 17, might be a member. She continued working on the manuscript for her theories on how magic worked as opposed to science (on a mostly simple level since she wasn’t majoring in a scientific field) Defying Physics, oblivious to her sister’s role in the war.  
..............  
Come winter holiday, Petunia was finally free to relax. She’d finished the first draft of the manuscript really early, having been ecstatic and full of ideas regarding magic vs. science that she’d been pondering for years, and Adrian had given her some time off for the holiday while he read through the paper. Lily would smile at her weakly, though Petunia was the one to offer the olive branch this year. Lily would make excuses: maybe over the summer, she’d say.  
Petunia wondered if her sister was becoming ill.  
This would be the last time she saw her sister alive.  
...............  
Dear Lily,  
I’m afraid I don’t understand. Why would you go into hiding? When can we see you again?  
I miss you. The house is too lonely now, dull.  
Come home soon.  
Petunia x.  
...............  
Congratulations, Frank!  
I heard about your engagement and I’m truly ecstatic for you. Hopefully you can visit me sometime at F&B. Hope to see you soon; congrats again, and I hope you and your fiance have a wonderful life together!  
................  
She’d been working at Flourish and Blotts for over two years when he walked in. Well, perhaps “sauntered in” would be more apt phrasing. Sirius Black was on a mission, but he refused to look anything but suave in the process. Petunia as Rosalie stifled a giggle.  
She continued shelving the new arrivals before she felt a tap on her shoulder.  
“Excuse me, miss, but where would I find the defense books?”  
“Directly behind you and to the right.”  
“Well, I’m afraid you’re gonna have to show me yourself.” Raising an eyebrow, she walked the short steps to the defense section.  
“Here’s what we have on defense for curses and such. Wards are upstairs to the left, pranks are in the far-right corner on this floor, and books on offensive magic are upstairs to the right by the staircase.”  
“And where would I find your name, beautiful?” Petunia snorted and walked away.  
................  
The thing was--he kept coming back. He’d get a new book every trip, within a day or two of the last. He’d grab a book, flirt, and invite Rosalie out to coffee. He didn’t even know her name.  
She’d say no, he’d promise to try again the next trip, and he’d leave.  
She couldn’t say she minded the flirting. Adrian kept making jokes about getting a son-in-law without technically having a daughter first. She knew Sirius was an outrageous flirt, but the persistence to it... well, one day, she said yes.  
................  
Sirius was a strange character. Now that she saw more than the flirting, she had to admit she kind of liked him. There were negative qualities of course, like his bull-headedness and devil-may-care attitude, but he could also be fiercely protective and intelligent. He liked her, even though she hesitated to tell him much about her personal life, just as she didn’t ask about his involvement in the war effort.  
She appreciated hearing the little tidbits about her sister though; even the stories about her Hogwarts days were to be treasured.  
..................  
After two years of working for Adrian, Petunia/Rosalie was more busy since she was slowly working her way through writing an actual novel--a work of fiction about house elves while studying her second year of Uni materials. Loki and Adrian were her rather constant companions as she continued living at F&B while working on her University degree, opting to take a few summer classes as well to graduate a little early (and because she was honestly a little bored during the summers, too used to the fast-paced learning).  
Adrian had actually offered to make her his heir, given that he was asexual/aromantic and thus unlikely to produce an heir. Petunia, as Rosalie, had been dating Sirius for several months, and they’d become really good friends. They weren’t the closest couple, but they were happy and casual and it was all either could have hoped for.  
Sirius helped her when her parents died and she helped him when his brother was officially declared deceased. She met Remus a few more times and even Peter once or twice, but she never met James again or saw her sister. She did, however, get to see Frank and meet Alice and baby Neville who she got to babysit a few times because he was so absolutely adorable.  
...............  
“What are you doing here?” The man startled, and clumsily took out his wand, having been lost in thought.  
“Who are you?”  
“Rosalie. Now tell me what you’re doing here before I call the Aurors.” He didn’t relax, but the man did slump while he stood. It looked like a strong wind would knock him right over.  
“I-I’m here to see Sirius.”  
“I don’t know anyone by that name.” She lied, unimpressed eyebrow judging the man. She continued clutching part of the doorframe to Black Manor on Grimmauld Place.  
“Shit. Shit, sorry. I just... I just need to apologize. Tell him some stuff. About the war. Why am I telling you this, you probably don’t care.” Rosalie gave him another once over and caught sight of the tiny Black crest on the sleeve of his robes.  
“Wait, are you Regulus?”  
“Yes?”  
“Sirius doesn’t have a very high opinion of you. In fact, he’d probably believe you’re here to kill him or turn him Dark.”  
“That’s not...” Rosalie sighed.  
“He’s out buying groceries. I’ll start the tea, shall I?” She asked, widening the door and stepping back to allow him inside.  
“So Siri’s got a girlfriend?”  
“Kind of. We’re friends, but I’m not sure if we’re more.”  
“Well you’re here aren’t you?” He said, glancing around the hall to Black Manor.  
“Yes. Yes, I am.” She murmured.  
Sirius returned thirty minutes later, after Rosalie had already made friends with Regulus. He was wary--beyond wary, even--but Rosalie trusted her instincts enough to leave the two brothers to figure it out. When she returned, they were both crying, but less openly hostile. Regulus left five minutes later.  
“Is everything alright?”  
“No. No, but they could be worse.”  
...............  
Dear sister,  
Recently two of my friends--brothers, they are--managed to reconcile after years apart. I don’t want us to be suspicious of one another and incapable of getting along for five minutes.  
We have our differences, but we’re sisters. I don’t want to lose you. I refuse to.  
With love,  
\- Petunia x.


	5. Chapter Five

 

_Dearest sister,_

_Oh, please send me pictures! I want to see his unruly hair for myself because I refuse to believe a baby can have James’ hair. Congratulations on your wedding, by the way. I’m sorry we couldn’t attend._

_Hadrian is such a pretty name._

_Stay safe and be careful. We miss you. Love you lots!_

  * _Petunia x._



_..............._

One day Petunia was alerted by the wards of an intrusion at the Evanses’ house, only, when she apparated in, she arrived to a blood bath.

She had nightmares for the next three weeks, and Adrian would rush into her room and hold her crying form as she choked out the story. The wards weren’t enough. Oh god. They’d just opened the door and didn’t think anything of it.

She should have warned them better. Drilled them. She should’ve...

Her parents were dead and more than that, they were a message.

Petunia decided they could take their message and shove it.

................

_Dear sister,_

_I’m sorry._

_I handled the funeral arrangements._

_Just take care of yourself, James, and baby Harry. Stay safe._

  * _Petunia_



...................

“What do I do, Adrian?”

“I’m gonna tell you the best advice I can give for a tough spot: ‘If you’re going through hell, keep going.’ I know it doesn’t help.”

“I feel like I’m gonna be sick.”

“Me too, Rosie. Me too.”

.................

Knowing her parents were dead and having to face that knowledge when cleaning out their house to sell were very different things. She couldn’t how many times she had to stop and just take everything in. She’d been working through their things slowly, afraid to miss something important, or maybe it was just masochistic of her as though she blamed herself for their deaths (and at times, she did; she’d warned them, but it just wasn’t enough). Whatever reasons she used, she was still in that house staring at the last box in the same position she’d been ten minutes ago.

The furniture was gone, already sold. Everything that personalized the residence had been removed, as had the blood stains. The home was now only a house, one that she could soon have no further connection to. She stood there, staring at that last box, and worked at the courage to say goodbye--because that’s where her dilemma lie. Removing that last box would be like removing her parents from their home and, though she knew logically that she had to do so, she struggled to manage to scrounge up the courage. However, she had not grown into the person she was without having plenty of courage, so she finally reached for her wand to minimize the final box and leave when a knock came at the door. She was not overly surprised: those offering their condolences outside of the funeral didn’t know her current address so people tended to show up at her parents’ house. Preparing to see another sorrowful face and an “I’m _so_ sorry,” she was not prepared to see no one at the door at all-

-Until she looked down, that is.

A baby, crying softly in its sleep, lay wrapped in a small downy blanket. She reached down, as though in a trance, and touched his little arm, causing the infant to stir briefly, exposing bright green eyes. _Lily’s eyes_.

_James’ hair._

 

_NO._

_That wasn’t poss--It couldn’t be because--someone would have_ told her _! Her nephew was safe at home with Lily and James and this poor child was someone else’s, left on her doorstep by accident because it_ could not be her nephew.

Please.

 

She cradled the tiny child in her arms and carried him inside, noticing a parchment letter hidden in the folds of the blanket.

_Petunia Evans_ said the envelope. She was afraid to open it, more afraid of this one single thing than she’d ever been of anything in her life.

But she couldn’t not know.

She opened the letter.

 

_Ms. Evans,_

_I am terribly sorry for your loss. More so, I must apologize for only adding to the bad news. Earlier today, the 31 October, 1981, Lord Voldemort saw fit to attack two families: the Longbottoms and the Potters. I cannot conjecture on his motives, but he attempted to kill Harry Potter, whereby only the love of his deceased mother and father could adequately save young Harry from such a fate. As you see, he is alive and well, but his parents are not. At this time, their Wills cannot yet be accessed, but Lily’s desire to rekindle her sisterly bond with you and the un-safety of the wizarding world at this time prompt me to ask you to care for the young Mr. Potter in the muggle world where he would be raised away from fame and danger, both._

_I realize the inconvenience inherent to this situation, and wish I could do more. Alas, I must continue the search now for information regarding Lord Voldemort and cannot care for a child. Nor can the wizarding family who’d hoped to take him in in the event of catastrophe, the Longbottoms, given their current residence at St. Mungo’s Permanent Care Ward. I am aware that the situation is not ideal, but I’m afraid we are currently at war.  
Please, care for young Harry as though he was your own son, away from the troubles of the wizarding world. I’ll have Lily and James’s things sent to you when the house is no longer a crime scene._

_Sincerely and with regret,_

_Albus Dumbledore_

.......................

She stumbled into Adrian’s arms with an upset infant in her own arms. She and the baby were both crying. And Adrian, well, Adrian just did the best thing he could’ve done and began shushing her while he hugged her and rubbed her back until she was no longer trembling, no questions asked. She choked out the story as best she could, how her sister and her husband were murdered and how she was now the only family her little nephew had since she’d heard her brother-in-law’s parents had been killed as well. Little baby Hadrian’s cries had quieted down once Rosalie’s had, but they started again soon enough as the tiny baby began calling for his momma, making Rosalie tear up all over again.

God, she couldn’t do this. Adrian hesitantly moved his arms toward the infant and Rosalie handed him over once she understood the intent. He looked at the baby as though he’d never seen something so precious and instantly, Rosalie knew he’d fallen in love with the baby. She watched as he rocked the baby gently and hummed a little while Rosalie composed herself again. She needed to swallow her pain and _think_.

She had no supplies. Sirius would recognize the baby. She needed to stop calling him “the baby” and accept that this child was now her responsibility until Dumbledore--and by that she meant the Ministry because Dumbledore was NOT going to be in charge of her nephew over her sister and brother-in-law’s Wills--said otherwise. So, Hadrian needed to be cared for indefinitely.

She nodded to herself and began composing a list.

Nappies, a binky, clean clothes, baby food (do babies still drink formula at a year old?), sippy cups, a highchair, a crib, a baby-monitor, bibs, some play toys, bath toys, a little mattress with blankets, a stroller, shoes, a diaper bag...

_“_ Adrian, we’ve got some shopping to do.”

“It’s almost ten at night; I’m not sure how much we could pick up now.”

“I’ve got enough money and know how to procure an international portkey within two hours.”

“... Lead the way.”

..................

By the end of the night (meaning around 2 a.m.), she’d procured enough supplies for the next three days at least and it turns out, babies usually prefer actual food by this time, so she bought a variety of baby foods for Hadrian to try out (she should’ve already known from babysitting Neville). She hadn’t gotten many toys or a stroller yet, but she had time. Meanwhile, she learned for the first time how to change a diaper and that babies don’t take well to you’re nervous and slow at changing a diaper when they’re already tired and irritable.

Adrian was endlessly patient and composed which she was both grateful for and jealous of. Thankfully, Hadrian fell asleep in his arms and slept most of the way through the shopping trip, though Rosalie took him partway through when Adrian said his arms were asleep. Soon enough, they were back home and Adrian was trying to figure out how to set up the crib while Rose unwrapped all their packages and prepared Hadrian a late dinner in case he hadn’t gotten one.

Mentally and emotionally exhausted, she rocked Hadrian back and forth gently while he slept after he’d spat out his mashed beans, but seemingly loved the sweet potatoes, until Adrian finally set up the crib the right way and put in the mattress and blankets, as well as a stuffed animal dog he’d seen at the store and grabbed for.

They were all tired and Rosalie rested baby Hadrian in the crib, set up the baby monitors, and trudged over to her bedroom, while baby Harry remained in the living room until something better could be arranged. She hugged Adrian goodnight, sluggishly moved to her bed, and was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

..................

She awoke less than three hours later to the sound of Adrian trying to shush Hadrian so he wouldn’t wake her. Instead, she pulled herself out of bed and walked over, trying to see what could be bothering the baby. She heard his cries for his mother and her heart shattered again, but she knew she couldn’t do anything to help this particular issue.

She tried to re-piece together the words to half-forgotten lullabies her mother and father had sung to her which seemed to calm him enough that he went back to sleep twenty minutes later. She was woken again, five hours later and figured she wasn’t going to get to sleep again anyway. Apparently Hadrian had nightmares of “gween” and “mumma!” and it wasn’t all that hard to figure out and her heart ached.

This morning, she actually introduced herself in an attempt to calm herself down and familiarize herself with her nephew.

“Hi, Hadrian. I’m your Aunt Rosie and this is Adrian, your grandpa.” She said, giving Adrian a watery smile, only to see his eyes misting up at the implied declaration. Harry was fairly subdued this morning as she produced banana for him with apple juice. She had no earthly idea what she was going to tell Sirius as to why she was now housing Harry Potter. Nonetheless, she composed a letter to send out in a few hours. First, she wanted to tell Adrian the truth.

“Adrian, I have to tell you something. I know you were wondering about the glamour I always wear and well, it’s kind of a long story.” She dropped the glamour for the first time in front of Adrian, it having been such habit that she rarely noticed it, and began explaining. Truthfully, she’d considered telling him many times, especially after working with him for years and because he was a father figure to her, but she was just so used to her muggle and magical lives being completely separate social circles that it was difficult to now present the truth/lie on which her life for the past eight years has been built upon.

“My name--is Petunia Evans and I’m 20 years old. When I was four, an auror saw me do magic at the store and decided that my magic should be bound until I received my Hogwarts letter, as I was a muggle-born...”

................

“I’ll help you set up the funeral arrangements.” He paused, seemingly debating whether or not to add to his statement, before coming to the conclusion that it was necessary. “You know that he’s famous and that cursed-scar will mark him forever if we can’t get it healed.”

“I know. I’m working on a plan for that, but mostly, I think I’ll just say that I had a son, as Rosalie. Hadrian Ebony, with no connection to Harry Potter. And I’ve already scheduled an appointment with the goblins to see about healing the scar, since their medicines are often much more effective than ours in these matters. Really, I’m worried about Sirius. The papers announced about Harry, but I haven’t seen Sirius in a few days and I’m getting worried.”

“Well, it could be nothing. He could be running errands for Dumbledore.”

“I suppose so, but I still think he would write or try to contact me as Petunia. Something’s just not right here.”

“I don’t much believe in coincidences.”

“And neither do I.”

................

“Azkaban! He’s in bloody Azkaban _without trial_ for supposedly murdering 13 muggles and Peter Pettigrew and betraying my sister! There’s no way on earth that he did that and none of the evidence otherwise was more than flimsily circumstantial at best! I’d bet Minister Fudge is behind this. Why when I get my hands on that little scumbag, I’ll-”

“Rosie, please, calm down! We have to think clearly, not impulsively on this. Rather than wringing the Minister’s neck, what do you suppose we do?” She narrowed her eyes at Adrian, trying to discern what he was considering.

“Are you thinking prison break or arranging a trial?” She looked up from between her hands, and Adrian began to smile.

“Why not both?”

...............

“And you know the plan?”

“Yes, Rosie, we’ve been over it five times! Besides, you’re the one actually doing anything, while I watch my grandson.” Rosalie turned and flashed a smile at Adrian while she mounted her broom.

“Still, it helps me to quiz you.” Adrian shook his head bemusedly, whispering something sounding like ‘of course it does’ before pulling Rosalie into a tight hug.

“Go get him. I want the chance to start showing off my grandson as soon as possible.”

“Sir, yes, sir,” she said, saluting, and turned on the spot to apparate, Cleansweep 2000 in hand. The plan had begun.

................

She arrived in the prison in the middle of the sea after pointedly checking places on a map that stubbornly refused to “exist”--unplottable charms, rather easy to get around by seeing what is capable of being plotted and what refuses. There had been very little available in all of the Flourish & Blott’s books regarding Azkaban prison, beyond a list of its most infamous residents. Checking the Black Library had similar results, since while Rosalie could access the library, she only had access to some of the books. Besides, no one had ever broken out of Azkaban prison.

It would be anything but easy. As best she and Adrian could tell, Azkaban was accessible by broom and possibly apparition, but only if one was a licensed Auror or accompanied by one. There weren’t any human employees since the Dementors might accidentally end up killing them, which was to their benefit. Theoretically, a powerful enough patronus would be able to hold them back long enough to allow a prisoner to be freed, but Rosalie hadn’t had much need to practice a patronus before and had never produced a corporeal one.

Given that there weren’t any wards, an animagus with flight or swimming capabilities should be able to reach the island--if they knew where it was in the North Sea.

Rosalie would have to be careful that her actions wouldn’t result in any other prisoners escaping. Though Sirius hadn’t gotten a fair trial (or any trial at all), most of the inhabitants of Azkaban had done horrible, horrible things to be thrown in there and it would not do to allow those individuals back into the world at large. Besides, a few Death Eaters were in there awaiting trial at approximately the same time as Sirius and posed a serious threat.

However, Rosalie was willing to admit that they didn’t have sufficient knowledge to plan for _actually getting Sirius out of Azkaban_.

So, she managed to find the prison, sticking out like a sore thumb--or rather, a giant hulking vertical rock formation--and would have to improvise from there. Thankfully, she was pretty good at improvising.

There had to be dozens of floors, she figured. Recon was her first priority and she quickly cast a hover charm on her broom and shifted into her animagus form that she’d been working on last year. Now a small falcon, she flew over to the building and its few East-facing windows. Searching each floor was relatively simple: she landed on the window ledge and glanced in, flying off immediately if Sirius wasn’t there.

With no luck on the east side, she moved to the south side and had luck around the 3rd floor (or what she supposed was the third floor, though there could be floors beyond sea-level). Sirius was the only one in the room, despite the four cells present. A Dementor was just leaving the room, Sirius shivering in a corner curled up on his bed. She’d never seen him look so helpless and defeated. Trying not to alert the guards, she waited until the Dementor had been out of sight for almost a minute before flying in between the bars on the window and changing back to herself.

“Siri?” She whispered and he finally turned towards her, as if in disbelief.

“Rosie? What the hell-?”

“No time. I don’t know the guard schedule or anything, so we’re getting out of her as soon as possible. Change into your animagus form.”

“What?” He asked, still clearly dazed.

“Your animagus form. The grim. Change, now.”

“How do you know about-”

“Please, just do it Sirius.” His head still stuffy as though filled with cotton, he complied and suddenly, standing before Rosalie, was a short dog with already slightly matted fur. Pushing aside her feelings on the matter, she pulled out her wand and began levitating him through the gap in the bars and toward the broom, trusting him to change back to human form when he reached it. Not disappointing, he did so and she hurried to change back to her falcon form and rejoin him. Releasing the hover charm, she pushed the broom at full speed toward Britain before they could be seen.

After a few minutes, Sirius seemed to have his wits about him more.

“You just... You just broke me out of Azkaban. No one’s ever broken out of Azkaban and yet you do it with less than three days of planning time. You’re _incredible_.”

“Thanks, but there’s a lot you don’t know yet. Most can wait until we get back to Adrian, but firstly, since you’re a wanted criminal, you _cannot_ be seen until your trial, is that understood?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. Who was the secret-keeper? Remus or Peter?”

“Peter. How-”

“You’ll see. Just... just wait.”

................

“Adrian, I brought home the dog!”

“It’s all clear. I can’t believe that you chose that passcode.”

“Oh hush.” Rosalie said, approaching Adrian and smiling at Hadrian who was teething on some very brightly-colored toy and smiling at Loki.

“I’ve been missing for three days; how in the hell did you manage to acquire a baby in that time?!”

“Keep your voice down! He’s my nephew. He’s my sister-- _was_ my sister’s son.”

“Oh. _Oh_. I am so sorry, Rose, I didn’t mean to imply-”

“It’s fine. Just... new. But there’s a lot you need to know.” Rosalie stated, while Loki began rubbing against Sirius’s leg. With all her planning, she still didn’t know how to go about this part.

“My nephew... his name is Hadrian. Hadrian Potter.” In any other circumstance, Sirius’s prompt fainting (“I passed out! I didn’t _faint_!”) might have been funny, but now it only served to make Harry giggle about silly “Pa’foo!”

...............

Once everything had been explained _again_ to Sirius, she taught him how to do the glamours she used so that he could leave the house in an emergency, though he needed to go to Black Manor to wait for Adrian to finish pulling the strings to get a trial (she’d never know how). Meanwhile, she needed to take Hadrian (“his name is Harry, Rose! Not _Hadrian!” / “_ But ‘Harry’ is tied to Harry Potter and ‘Hadrian’ is not. _”_ ) to the goblins at Gringotts to look at his scar, which refused to heal with an episkey, meaning it was likely a cursed-scar.

Carefully dressing baby Hadrian in a little black sweater and some pants over his nappy, she prepared to begin her public persona of having a son. Given that she rarely left the shop or discussed her private life, she doubted it’d be much of an issue, but in case she ran into anyone she knew, she would say that Hadrian was her child and her partner at the time of contraception had been incapable of caring for an infant.

She could do this.

..............

She walked into Gringotts bank, still adjusting to holding Hadrian at her hip.

“Hello, Ragnok. I was wondering if you could see about healing a cursed-scar on my son.”

“Of course, Ms. Ebony. Follow Ironthorn to an adjoined room and he will see what we can do. The service will be charged after being performed, determined by the scar itself.”

“Thank you, Ragnok. May your vault’s gold overflow,” she stated, hoping that she’d used the right phrasing. Apparently it was at least close enough because Ragnok smiled at her (it looked like a smirk) and waved her off. Meeting who she assumed to be Ironthorn, she followed the goblin to another room, while Harry tugged on her hair and she pulled his hand to wrap around her fingers instead.

“Please seat the child in the center of the room while I collect a colleague.”

“Yes, sir.” She carefully shifted the baby from her arms and onto the floor, presenting a toy to him from within her robes pocket. Ironthorn returned moments later with a goblin that she was likewise unfamiliar with.

“You believe the child has a cursed-scar. How did it happen?”

“I was not there at the time, but dark magic was thrown at him and somehow left the scar you see. It refuses to heal and continues to bleed. I’m worried it may not go away on its own and the goblin species is invariably better than humans at this kind of healing magic.” The goblin accepted this with a grunt, running diagnostic spells, then squinting at whatever results were provided.

“It is indeed dark magic, though I am unfamiliar with it.” And he sounded quite frustrated at that fact.

“It is parasitic in nature, feeding off of the child’s magic, but we should be capable of removing it from the boy and starving it of magic entirely.”

“It’s _alive?”_ She asked frantically.

“Not quite.” He did not elaborate as he and his colleague began removing the dark magic, which caused Hadrian to wriggle and cry, then scream. It was over in about ten minutes, in which Hadrian wouldn’t stop crying and Rosalie was worrying her lip so much that she was worried she’d bite through it. Finally, it was over and Harry’s cries turned to hiccups. With the signal, Rosalie glided forward to scoop up her nephew, holding him close and petting his hair. One goblin left the room, while the other reached forward and touched the lightning bolt scar on Hadrian’s head, healing it once and for all.

“That’ll be 13 galleons and 5 sickles.” Rosalie fished out her coin purse and pulled out the appropriate money.

“Thank you.” She said. The colleague came back with Ragnok in tow, who seemed oddly pale.

“Ms. Ebony.” He called, garnering her attention. He coughed awkwardly for a moment before shooing the other two goblins from the room.

“Ironthorn and Wrought were not familiar with the magic on young Harry”--she started, not having told the goblin Hadrian’s name--”but,” he continued, “I am. And that was no cursed-scar, not in the traditional sense. That was a _horcrux._ Vile soul-magic, most likely performed by Voldemort himself. I suggest you use this information wisely.” Shaken and unsure just what a horcrux entailed, Rosalie nodded and thanked the goblin, leaving more worried than she was going in.

She had research to do.

...................

_Madame Longbottom,_

_I’m not sure if your son or daughter mentioned me much, but I was Frank’s friend and Neville’s sometimes-babysitter. I heard the news of their hospitalization and was hoping to visit soon, but that is not the purpose of this letter._

_I was hoping that my son might be allowed a playdate with your grandson. He’s had a rather isolated childhood and Neville is the only child my son’s age that I am familiar with. Hadrian--my son--should not grow up without friends, and I suppose Neville shouldn’t either._

_Given your busy schedule as a Wizegamot member, I thus offer my services to babysit Neville whenever you require a sitter. I hope it will be to the benefit of both boys._

_Sincerely,_

_Rosalie Ebony_

_....................._

_Ms. Ebony,_

_I have been vaguely familiar with your acquaintanceship with my son since his school days. Seeing as you are a well-established authoress with previous experience watching over Neville, I see no reason to stop your caring for him when I am unable. However, seeing as you asked for this as a favor, I do not believe you need to be paid. You may not take Neville outside of London without my express permission or I will have you arrested. Hopefully you find these conditions amenable._

  * _Augusta Longbottom._



_.............._

Visiting Frank and Alice was heartbreaking, but she put it in her schedule to visit at least once a week. She would not lose her friends, even if they couldn’t recognize her.

_.............._

_Ms. Ebony,_

_I am going to be attending a session all day tomorrow. Can you care for Neville from 8 until 6? Thank you._

  * _A. Longbottom_



_..............._

_Mrs. Longbottom,_

_I would be happy to. I’ll pick him up promptly at 8._

_Sincerely,_

_Rosalie Ebony_

_................_

“You may not, under any circumstances, appear as Sirius Black to Neville or I will have your hide.” Sirius held his hands in surrender and smiled disarmingly.

“Would I do that?”

“You forget, Siri, _I know you.”_ Sirius sighed and rolled his eyes, but acknowledged the point and pointedly didn’t comment on how he apparently hadn’t known _Petunia_ all that well. At 7:58, Sirius Black changed from human to dog, wearing the “ _hilarious_ ” collar Rosalie had made stating his name as Snuffles. When Rosie reappeared with another infant in tow through the floo, Snuffles bounded forward to eagerly sniff the baby.

Rosalie rolled her eyes and carried Neville to Hadrian’s playroom--an extension of Petunia’s own room--where Harry sat playing with his stuffed dog and a miniature quaffle ball that he was gnawing on. He perked up when he saw Rosalie entering with another child and his head adorably cocked to the side. He pointed at Neville, but said nothing as Rosalie sat the infant a few feet from Harry.

“Hadrian, this is Neville. Neville, this is Hadrian.” Hadrian, the more curious of the two, crawled forward and plopped himself before Neville, releasing the quaffle ball. Both boys appeared to be sizing each other up before Hadrian moved to pet Neville’s cheek. Neville, meanwhile, seemed confused, but not upset and moved to put the hand in his mouth. Hadrian pulled away, giggling, which caused Neville to giggle in turn.

Snuffles moved forward then, to see if he would be accepted for frighten the tot, but Neville reached for his fur and tugged him forward, falling onto Snuffles in the process, who was knocked to the floor with Neville on top. Neville blinked in shock before wriggling around to cuddle the dog, never having seen such a creature. Harry moved again then and toddled over to the dog as well and plopped down, presenting his hand to Snuffles.

Rosalie didn’t know what to think, except to be glad the two boys were getting along. She pulled out her polaroid camera and snapped a couple photos of the two toddlers rolling around with Snuffles.

She hoped this would be the start of a fantastic friendship.

.............

As Adrian continued working on getting Sirius a trial--made quite difficult by his _not_ _being in Azkaban_ , Petunia focused on caring for Harry and writing her novel, and, of course, completing her education. She was almost done her homework, so, so close, but the work was going rather slowly.

Looking for a distraction, she saw Sirius playing peak-a-boo with Harry who was giggling helplessly. Rosalie herself had to stifle a giggle at the scene of a grown man pulling ridiculous faces to entertain a one-year-old. Adrian, of course, was filming the whole thing in the corner. Taking his role of pseudo-grandfather very seriously, he was adamant that he catch everything cute that Hadrian did on camera, except he tended to think everything Hadrian did was cute, so they already had filled half an album in the month since Harry had arrived.

As though sensing her watching, Harry turned to her and called “Wose! Wose!” because he still struggled to pronounce r’s. She waved and he pouted until she eventually walked over to him, sat down, and hoisted him into her lap. Sirius, unabashed, continued making faces at Harry who made a valiant effort to make Rosalie see as well by pointing and clapping.

“I see, Hadrian! Look at silly Uncle Padfoot!” When Harry looked away, she gave a bemused look to the still-filming(-unashamedly) Adrian who only grinned back.

“Alright, sweetie. Play time’s about over. It’s right about time for your nap.” He pouted and began to sulk before brightening.

“Be’ti stowy!”

“Yes, you get a bedtime story.” She chuckled. “Adrian,” she called, “shouldn’t you be watching the store?”

“Not much business right now. Hogwarts students won’t come to Diagon for another week and the Christmas rush won’t hit for another few days at least. They can wait five minutes while I enjoy time with my grandson.”

“Go,” she insisted, “I’ll join you in twenty.” Adrian gave a put-out sigh which made Harry giggle, before heading downstairs. “And you, Sirius, should go back home for a while. You know Kreacher won’t keep the house clean unless you’re there to tell him too. And I need you to keep looking in the library for books on horcruxes. I’ve found almost _nothing_ downstairs.”

“Tut tut, what’s the point of living in a bookshop if you can never find anything useful in it.” Rosalie maturely stuck out her tongue at him and picked up Harry to change his diaper before bed.

“Upsy-daisy.” Harry had picked up his binky from somewhere and had it in his mouth, sucking on it. After reading all the books Flourish & Blotts’ had on babies, she knew he would be teething for a while and could keep the pacifier for a few more months before she would have to start limiting his time with it. She’d never realized just how _complicated_ child-care was.

Sure, she babysat Neville, but that was for only a few hours at a time back then. Now it’s at least twice a week for almost a whole day, but the boys were content to sit in a corner play-pen at F&B and look adorable while Adrian and she worked. Now, she had to consider what to feed Hadrian, what he should wear, had to keep track of when his diaper had last been changed, etc. As someone hyper-focused on details, she was up to her ears in instructions regarding his care, but sometimes when she just took it all in and saw him giggling at Sirius acting like a lunatic while Adrian filmed, it all seemed okay.

“Goodnight Moon, Babbity-Rabbity, or Winnie the Pooh?”

“Winnie!” he screeched. Biting back a smile, Rosalie pulled out Harry’s favorite Winnie the Pooh book and began.

..............

It took about three months since Harry’d been dropped off for Dumbledore to finally send Harry, Lily, and James’s things. He’d left them at the old Evanses house, and the new occupants had been kind enough to send her a letter to come pick it up. She returned to Adrian and Harry (Sirius was looking into horcruxes still and how to legally make sense of his situation--it was a _giant_ library!) with three medium-sized boxes--all that hadn’t been whisked away to their vault or destroyed. Honestly, she wasn’t sure if she’d have access to Lily’s vault at Gringotts, even with Harry, and she wasn’t sure she was ready to see what was in there when their death and funerals were still so fresh. She’d had to put Lily and James in James’s family’s plot in Godric’s Hollow by their request.

As she unpacked the first box, she found some clothes and toys of Harry’s and some of Lily’s finer jewelry with a watch she assumed was James’s and a blank folded sheet of parchment. The second had a china set, missing two teacups, a comforter, Harry’s previous bedding, three baby-blankets, two binkys, some stuffed toys of Harry’s, and a rather large supply of baby-food. The third and final box had two large photo albums, a silvery cloak, some miscellaneous knick-knacks, a few of their smaller wedding gifts, and a few books on magic and two journals. Overall, there weren’t many personal effects, though she was grateful for all of Harry’s things and the photo albums.

She had expected there to be a lot more that hadn’t been ransacked or sent to their accounts though. Dumbledore, again, had left a letter.

_Ms. Petunia Evans,_

_I apologize for making you wait to receive these items. I hesitated to allow several of the magical items to reach your possession, not wanting Harry involved in the magical world, but I will leave you to decide at your own discretion the right time to present these particular items to Harry._

_Sadly, there was not much more in the house except magical odds and ends and furniture. If there’s anything specific that you wish to request me to find, please send a letter to Hogwarts and it will reach me. Atalyia has been staying at the Owlry there after having been injured in the attack, but she and James’s owl, Apollo, will be arriving together shortly. I trust you can care for them as you do Harry._

_Given the process of events, I’m afraid I am unable to find a magical family with which Harry could reside, but I likewise find myself unwilling to allow him to rest in a magical family regardless, wishing that he know nothing of his fame in our world. I must ask you to care for him._

_I trust you to do this task properly. I’ll have money sent monthly for the boy’s care.  
Good luck and happy holidays._

_\- Albus P.W.B. Dumbledore_

“What authority does that man have to say where he goes, hmm?!” She hissed under her breath. Harry rolled over in his sleep and she paused to allow a sad smile to overtake her face before it turned into a real one.

“Wake up, sleepy head. Nap time’s over.” Rosalie called, gently rubbing Hadrian’s hair and feeling something sticky.

“Someone needs a bath tonight.” She whispered. Hadrian blinked green eyes up at her before really waking up, beginning to screw his eyes closed in a way that Rosalie knew meant he had a dirty diaper.

“Come on, kiddo. Nappy change and then Neville’s coming over!”

“Nevoo?”

“That’s right: Neville!”

“So you’re gonna be on your best behavior, right?” Hadrian nodded, eyes wide, distracted temporarily from his full nappy.

Rosalie had been forced to get the hang of nappy-changing, though she foisted the duty off on Sirius whenever he was in sight. Unfortunately, he wasn’t, so she had to do it herself. Adrian couldn’t, even when he wasn’t working. For whatever reason, he could never figure out how to do the diaper and Hadrian would grow impatient or--and she still laughed--pee on him. So diaper-changing-time it was, following a bubble-head charm.

 

After changing Hadrian’s nappy, she took him downstairs to F&B where Adrian was waiting. She quickly went back upstairs, looked at the time, and promptly walked to the floo.

_“Longbottom Manor!”_ she called, throwing down the powder, prompting a green fire. She stumbled out the other side and quickly composed herself to see Augusta waiting and holding a crying and squirming Neville.

“I’m afraid it’s one of those days.”

“His parents?” She hazarded.

“Yes.” Augusta said, looking away. “We’d hoped with time they might heal, but...”

“They don’t recognize me either.” Augusta merely shook herself in an effort to compose herself and returned to full distant-politeness mode.

“Well, I’d best be off. Have a nice time and be good to Rosalie and Hadrian, alright, Neville?” Without waiting, she handed the crying baby over to Rosalie and disapparated with a crack. Rosalie sighed and carried Neville to the floo. She hoped Harry would be able to cheer up Neville, though it was fairly unlikely, at least for the first hour.

That was another thing she’d had to adjust too--screaming children. She’d learned to tell based on the scream with about 80% accuracy, what the baby wanted, though she was much better at it with Harry than Neville if only because of how often she was with Hadrian.

She’d never been around many kids and hadn’t been around any except for Neville in years. Every time Hadrian or Neville used to scream she’d about have a heart attack, worried they were seriously injured or dying. Nowadays, she still raced to make sure they were okay, but she was rarely as panicked mentally. There were calming charms in the F&B playpen though, so they were rarely loud or upset and people frequently went over to coo at them.

Today, a little girl with bright pink hair decided to go over to the playpen and proceeded to turn her hair a rainbow of colors, while altering her facial features. It was enough to pull Neville out of his funk and had him giggling like crazy. Harry was doing his best to make requests.

“Puple!”

“Wed!”

“Gween!” And soon Neville joined in the fun.

“Bwue!” Rosalie glanced at them fondly while helping a customer.

“Your kids?” The customer asked.

“Well, one of them. I’m babysitting the other.” The woman nodded.

“Mine’s the metamorphagus.”

“Ah. She seems very nice. And a blast with children.” Rosalie said with a smile as she rung up the total for _101 Ways to Entertain a Child_ , _A Guide to Warding,_ and _Defending Your Muggle Friends and Family, A Guide._ She smiled as she saw her book in the pile.

“That’ll be 7 galleons, 1 sickle, and 3 knuts please.”

...............

After another month of the same patterns, Adrian and Sirius finally struck gold.

“We’ve got it!”

“Beg your pardon?” Rosalie asked, confused.

“We figured out how to force a trial. They won’t have a choice, legally!”

“Oh. Oh, that’s fantastic!”

“I’ll write the letter now!”

................

They never did explain what strings they had to pull, just that it involved people in high places and cashing in some favors and a lot of legal jargon. Basically, a trial was called and Sirius just strolled in without warning, calling out, “I offer to take Veritaserum and submit pensieve memories on the condition that when I’m found not-guilty of betraying the Potters or murdering anyone, that whoever had me thrown in Azkaban without trial be legally punished.” If she’d been there, she might have punched him. As it is, it’s a miracle that Dumbledore was forced to look after Hogwarts that day and couldn’t attend to prevent Sirius from being able to locate Harry.

Adrian promised that the whole thing was very entertaining, seeing the whole room just start running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Well, that’s not what actually happened, but with the shock present in the room, it might as well have been.

Nine grueling hours later, Sirius walked out with an Order of Merlin while Peter Pettigrew had an outstanding arrest-on-sight order while his Order of Merlin was stripped away. As recompense for being falsely imprisoned without trial, even for the short period of time it was, the Wizegamot owed him a favor. His legal claim to Harry was reinstated, if he wanted to use it.

Moony came up afterwards and punched him though. Then hugged him nearly to death and apologized, but still. Sirius heard Remus sniff the air for a second and stiffened.

“Why do you smell like baby?” He asked confused before his eyes grew wide as saucers.

“You didn’t.” Remus warned.

“Um... I kinda did? Not on purpose!”

“How do you accidentally-?!”

“Not here! Just... Ugh. Come with me. God it’s good to get some fresh air again.”

“Sirius, what the hell-”

“Shhhhh, Moony. All will be explained. Okay, maybe not all, but most. Probably. Anywayyyy...”

............

“You need to tell me right now: are we sticking with Rosalie or Petunia? Because right now Rosalie is not only the key to my continued success, but also Hadrian’s protection.”

“It’s... It’s _Moony_ , okay? I trust him with my life.”

“You didn’t a few months ago. You thought he was the spy in the Order.”

“And I shouldn’t have. I let others cloud my judgment of him.”

“If you allow others to cloud your judgment on him again or on Harry and I, I will perform a memory curse so powerful that you won’t remember your own name, do you understand me?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He squeaked, knowing the threat was serious.

“Good. I’ve done my share of explaining and I have a dissertation to edit. You get to explain it to him. But you are _not_ to take Hadrian to Grimmauld Place until we’ve finished clearing it of anything exceedingly dark.”

“Bu-”

“No buts! Remus can come here _if_ Adrian says it’s okay.”

“Yes, mother.” Rosalie raised an unimpressed eyebrow.  
“I mean, yes, dear!” He said and ran away with his (metaphorical) tail between his legs.

................

Petunia Evans graduated from University with a BA degree in English in May. She brought her friend of several years, Leo, to her graduation ceremony; her nephew did not attend, though if one payed attention, a man that looked remarkably like Adrian Blott sat in the third row, holding an infant.

 


	6. Chapter Six

****It took about 8 months after Hadrian first arrived to see Severus again. To be perfectly honest, she never gave much thought to the git. Lily had assured her Severus had joined the Death Eaters and that was that. So, obviously, when she saw him enter F &B while she was working, instead of being in Azkaban or doing something suitably evil, she kind of... panicked. She froze, glanced at Hadrian, and tried to ask Adrian to take over, but by that time, Adrian had a customer and Snape was walking over.

“Where are the books on Potions?”

“Upstairs in the far left corner in the back.” Severus nodded and left to go upstairs. Adrian finally escaped the customer and hurried over.

“Is everything alright?”

“Take Hadrian upstairs before he sees.” Not bothering to ask more questions and waste time, Adrian quickly snatched up baby Harry and took him upstairs, promising apple sauce. Severus came back downstairs after a few minutes with two texts on theorized ancient potions, paid, and left. Rosalie damn-near had a heart attack. Deciding today warranted a family meeting, she decided to close the shop for the day and flipped the sign to CLOSED.

“Adrian?” She called as she walked upstairs, only to pause at the cuteness of Adrian trying unsuccessfully to get Harry to keep the majority of the apple sauce in his mouth. Adrian hadn’t apparently heard her, so intent was he on feeding Hadrian his snack. Trying to be silent, Rosalie found Adrian’s camera on the table and began filming.

“Eat the apple sauce. In-in your mouth, Harry, not--oh, bother. How you love apple sauce yet don’t even eat half the container is beyond me!” He said to Harry’s delight.

Harry flicked the spoon Adrian presented and shot the apple sauce right in Adrian’s face and it took all of Rosalie’s willpower not to bend over laughing, but rather keep the camera going. Adrian just sighed. Rosalie couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing, finally stopping the camera.

“Oh, Merlin, I needed that.” Adrian gave her a wry look while wiping apple sauce off his reading glasses.

“Why are you upstairs?”

“I closed the shop. Mandatory family meeting. I’m calling Sirius. Should I call Remus?”

“That’s up to you, given that I don’t know what this meeting will be about.”

“Right. I’ll call him.” She put some floo powder in the fire and called “ _Number 12 Grimmauld Place!”_ but didn’t step inside, bending her head into the green fire instead.

“Siri?”

“Rosalie?” Remus asked, putting his book down.

“Oh, hello, Remus. Could you get Sirius and both come through the floo? I wanted to discuss something with you.”

“Of course, give me just a minute.”

............

“So why are we all here?” Sirius asked, bouncing Hadrian on his leg.

“Because I just sold potions books to a Death Eater.”

“ _What?!”_ Three voices yelled at once. Harry looked extremely confused.

“Severus Snape. Lily told me he was a Death Eater and he just came into Flourish & Blotts. He’s not in Azkaban or anything and I guarantee he didn’t have the money to pay anyone off. That means that there are probably lots of others who escaped sentencing. Who’ll want to come after Harry.”

“You mean to prepare for war.”

“I intend to prepare for all possible eventualities to protect what family I have left. We have to remove the Death Eaters from the equation and take care of the horcruxes. How’s research going on that front?”

“We know what horcruxes are and how they’re made. We don’t know how many Voldemort has, just that Nagini is probably one. He could have made several over his lifetime. I-...”

“What?”

“I think Dumbledore knows something about it. I think the scar was important to him, a sign that the prophesy was right. He wants Harry to fight the Dark Lord.”

Remus summed up what they were all thinking pretty well.

“Shit.”

“Shi!” Harry repeated happily. Rosalie paled and glared at Remus who shrunk back in his seat.

.................

A plan was established in case of emergencies, but mostly their Plan was in regards to rounding up the Death Eaters and forcing retrials where people couldn’t be paid off--and where those that had accepted bribes already would be arrested as well. It started with Elyan Crabbe being given veritaserum before being deposited in Diagon Alley, singing like a canary about his Death Eater ways (she’s learned the channel the Mama Bear Effect into being suitably terrifying). After Crabbe came Theodore Goyle. Then Paul Yaxley. Then their biggest target yet: Lucius Malfoy.

Lucius Malfoy was an arrogant SOB who fully believe the pureblood agenda and would do anything to see it happen, even bow to a madman like You-Know-Who. He was hard to break, having survived torture from the Dark Lord before, but eventually, she, Sirius, and a surprisingly mean Remus (playing up the werewolf thing) managed to scare him into a public confession after certain... persuasions. Lucius never knew who’d played him for a fool, but he vowed revenge.

After Malfoy, it was easier. Trials were occurring for Crabbe, Goyle, Yaxley, and Malfoy while the process was repeated on those that had accepted the bribes. Eventually, several people who’d accepted bribes came forth themselves to avoid the humiliation, prompting even more trials. There was sheer insanity in the wizarding world, as each Death Eater was forced under Veritaserum to admit to the names of other Death Eaters.

Severus Snape was merely placed on probation, having switched sides partway through, but still, the Death Eater forces were partially crippled. Just to ensure another Azkaban escape couldn’t occur, Rosalie and Sirius returned with Remus to set up powerful anti-animagus transformation wards.

Next to be sent to Azkaban were Rudolphus and Rebastan Lestrange, Antonin Dolohov, and the Carrow twins, along with about 5% of the Wizegamot.

All told, there were 14 Death Eaters arrested, including 5 of the inner circle, and 12% of the Wizegamot was thrown out for accepting bribes, along with .8% of the Ministry as a whole. There were 11 outstanding warrants (on top of Peter Pettigrew’s) for the arrest of suspected Death Eaters to stand trial.

But the horcruxes remained an issue and the Death Eaters that had escaped trials were angry at the legal actions taken against their cohorts. Without knowing enough about the horcruxes, there was little they could do except look into Voldemort’s past--but first, they needed a name.

Meanwhile, Rosalie, Remus, Neville, Hadrian, Sirius, Augusta, and Adrian celebrated Neville and Hadrian’s second birthdays on August 1 and August 14, respectively. Cake, in the hands of a toddler, was a weapon of mass destruction: cake ended up everywhere, but it was a fantastic birthday for both boys and merited dozens of photographs. Adrian had started a smaller photo album of Neville to give to Augusta and make a copy for Frank and Alice. Although the year was anything but calm, she refused to regret anything that got them there, even the sad bits.

Harry smashed more cake on his face and Rosalie smiled.

....................

Soon enough, she published the house elf book she was working on under two smaller volumes- _Unseen_ and _Hear Me!_ She thought she might take a break from writing for a while as she cared for Harry, unless un-ignorable inspiration struck or if she wanted to work on another research paper for a topic that interested her. Adrian, meanwhile, assured her that her work was brilliant and she should absolutely record her findings as she continued various research projects.

Sirius was all for the break, hoping to have a partner to search through the books he’d recovered from the Black vault, having had minimal luck searching the Library for books on horcruxes. His contacts were searching for information on Voldemort, but so far had no results. However, he heard whispers of a friend of the school-aged form of Abraxas Malfoy’s and was looking into it.

Hadrian just enjoyed the sound of Rosalie, Adrian, or Sirius reading to him. He enjoyed picture books more though.

...................

Sirius Black’s promise at trial was remembered by a very worried Amelia Bones. You see, who had the authority to command the disregard of legal authority but Albus Dumbledore and Cornelius Fudge? Neither option boded well.

If Albus Dumbledore forced the life sentence, then he either knew something or _thought_ he knew something regarding Sirius or the current political system and was taking things into his own hands _again_ in blatant disrespect for the law. He was being grandfatherly manipulative to suit his own goals.

If, however, Fudge was the cause of this, he was a puppet to someone with much more money than he, and those who would resort to such methods could only be pureblood Slytherins. Thus, the likely supporters of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had a strong foothold in the Ministry. And that was a _very_ bad thing.

..................

Hadrian Ebony was officially in his terrible-two’s. Thankfully, he was rather calm, as was Neville. They had energy to spare, but they preferred not making a lot of noise as it sometimes scared them to have sudden loud noises--though when Sirius did it in dog form, they seemed to love it.

Rosalie was getting the hang of managing a toddler, though it would always be weird for her since she didn’t have the pregnancy or following year to mentally prepare for suddenly having a son.

And wasn’t that just the most confusing thing? In the muggle world, she was Petunia Evans, muggle. In the public wizarding world, she was Rosalie Ebony, muggleborn witch, authoress, and the mother of a young boy named Hadrian. In private in the magical world, however, she was Rosalie Ebony and Petunia Evans, Harry Potter’s aunt and Sirius Black’s girlfriend, as well as Adrian Blott’s pseudo-daughter.

Keeping track of the personas was easy because she _was_ Rosalie, even if it wasn’t her legal name. She was fully herself regarding her personality if not the facts of her life, but few would understand, she knew. She did love her life though and her new little family. She didn’t really want anything to change, but the rest of the world wasn’t interested in cooperating.

..................

Peter Pettigrew was never found. Now, this fact about a rat of a man, a coward, was very important because Peter Pettigrew followed whoever offered him the most safety; he wanted to be on the winning side. He guessed wrongly.

Peter was a man of few desires except to live. He was a follower, not a leader, and felt more comfortable backing up someone he supported than himself enacting any significant changes unless it benefited him--and helping Lord Voldemort would definitely help him when he arose. Peter saw what happened that night, knew Voldemort wasn’t dead.

Voldemort could not die. So when Peter saw an opportunity for career advancement, he took it.

................

Lucius Malfoy was a proud nineteen-year-old eager to prove his loyalty to the Dark Lord and to prove himself a capable ally. He refused to acknowledge his _subservient_ role to the political force Voldemort presented, though he knew now he’d chosen poorly to so quickly accept that He would truly act for the pureblood legacy. Still, despite the Dark Lord’s faults, he still enacted great tortures toward the muggles and muggleborns, teaching them not to steal from the wizards and witches’ magical reserves, producing squibs. He wanted to make his “Master” proud so that he might rise above his role as a mere Death Eater.

Though he was in Azkaban for his role in the war, his father was free due to never pledging his allegiance as a Death Eater, and his baby son needed to see the ways of the Dark. He wanted his son to be raised _right_.

Lucius Malfoy sent a single encrypted letter from Azkaban after his trial before he eventually fell prey to the Dementors.

..................

Narcissa Malfoy disappeared from the public view for a while after her husband’s arrest. No one knew what she and her two-year-old son did during the next three months, only that she turned up eventually asking her sister, Andromeda, to forgive her for abandoning her. Her son, she said, was innocent and must be kept that way. Andromeda wouldn’t share the rest of the story, just that she and her sister were on reasonably good terms and Draco seemed to like Dora. She was arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting Death Eater activity, but was found not guilty on all accounts, unlike her husband.

...................

Abraxas Malfoy received his son’s letter and, choosing his side, wrote an encrypted letter to a man named Peter Pettigrew, forcing him out of the Weasley home after an owl with his name appeared at their house.

...................

Rosalie Ebony received a letter from Albus Dumbledore for the first time.

_Dear Ms. Ebony,_

_I have read and enjoyed your research on muggle and magical history. At Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, we find ourselves requiring a new history professor, as the current one is a ghost and does not teach updated history. Though this is very nontraditional, I’m hoping that I might be able to interview you for the position. I can promise a respectable wage and housing, with some time to work on any other works you may be producing._

_Might you be able to appear Wednesday at 9 o’clock? You can floo in by asking for Hogwart’s Hospital Wing._

_Thank you for your consideration._

  * _Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Src., Chf, Warlock, Supreme Mugwhump, International Confed. of Wizards)_



_.................._

_Dear Headmaster Dumbledore,_

_Thank you for your considering me for the position, though I never applied, but I’m afraid I am unable to teach at this time--raising a young child is, after all, a full-time job by itself. While I appreciate your kind words, I must decline, at least for several years, though I could compose a list of those contemporary historians from whom I drew inspiration for my work if you’d like to ask them to teach as well._

_Thank you, but no thank you,_

_Rosalie Ebony_

_.................._

_Dear Sirius “Padfoot” Black,_

_Hullo, my boy. I hope this letter reaches you without trouble. I can only speculate as to what you might be doing with your newfound freedom. I regret not having written you before, but this Death Eater madness is rather time-consuming. I find myself in need of a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor once more and am afraid I must ask for your help._

_I’ve received only two applications, one from a rather unfocused potioneer and mother named Yarwood-Lovegood who, while unqualified, is passable with defense, and a rather unhinged fellow named Tethra who I am afraid has barely passable defense abilities and merely applied to ease his boredom. Remembering your school-day abilities and your aptitude in the Order of the Phoenix, I was hoping that you might return to public view in order to teach the subject you yourself so adored._

_Please respond with the utmost haste._

  * _Albus Dumbledore_



_P.S. I would like to discuss with you the current situation of young Harry Potter._

_................._

_Dear Dumbledore,_

_I cannot at this time take the DADA position due to circumstances I do not wish to disclose. Ms. Yarwood-Lovegood sounds like a lovely woman and, from what I’ve heard,  could easily teach potions. Perhaps Snivellus would do best where he wouldn’t have to watch students struggle with material that came naturally to him, but rather have him teach something that he had to work to be good at._

_Good luck. Also, Leonard Tethra is a notorious drunkard._

  * _S.O.B._



_P.S. Sorry, but I can’t make it. Please don’t contact me again, you’ll find your letters simply return to you unopened._

_P.P.S. Tell Snivellus that he did good for once with that Wolfsbane potion. I’m actually a little proud of the git._

_...................._

_You-Know-Who Gone, But Muggle and Muggleborn Deaths Increasing_ , declared the Daily Prophet.

Despite the Death Eater arrests, muggle and muggleborn death rates were skyrocketing due to the anger and competence of the remaining followers. Several suspected Death Eaters were on the run, joining forces with the Death Eaters that were acting out, having nothing to lose; the wizarding world lived still in fear, despite Voldemort’s supposed death. Dumbledore could do nothing to calm the raging storm: instead, that job apparently fell to the Ebony family.

.....................

Hadrian was progressing well, beginning to see the merits of running around, to Rosalie’s growing horror and Sirius’s excitement. The terrible two’s were not named such for nothing, Rosalie discovered. Harry was suddenly curious about _everything_ and would run around to discover it himself if no one answered his incomprehensible questions quickly enough. He was usually pretty calm, but when he got in one of his “moods,” as Rosalie called his excited curiosity spurts, he was more than a handful. An adorable ball of energy and questions, but still a rather time and energy-consuming task.

Sirius was still getting the hang of answering questions in ways appropriate for Harry’s age, so these periods were usually left to Rosalie or Adrian, who thankfully didn’t mind Rosalie’s having to suddenly abandon him at work.

Adrian would babysit frequently so that Rosalie had a chance to work, read, and complete her independent studies, while Sirius began designing some products to propose to Zonko’s and worked on cleaning out (ever so slowly) Black Manor, so as to make it suitable to everyday living without residents fearing for their lives.

Harry’s new favorite word was “no,” unfortunately, and he adored saying it all the time, especially when he wasn’t getting enough attention. Both he and Neville went through a rougher patch for a while, with both toddlers being rather selfish, though Rosalie knew it was expected at this stage of development. Meanwhile, she was doing her absolute best to potty-train both Hadrian and Neville, with minimal success. Though it wasn’t possible, she had the strangest sense that Loki the cat was laughing at her the whole time.

Raising one child was difficult enough, but Augusta had taken to having Neville stay over three days a week, so she was half-raising him as well. And she’d never even given birth to a baby, yet she had one and a half! Well, toddlers. If you called them a baby to their faces, they’d become quite angry for two-year-olds. Rosalie felt pretty consistently on the edge of a nervous breakdown, though all the parents she knew and sought advice from assured her that she was doing fantastically.

She was brought to tears and about had a nervous breakdown when Harry and Neville caught colds, so Adrian pointedly locked her in her room with a bunch of books and demanded she not come out for at least 12 hours which must include at least 8 hours of sleep, while he and Sirius took care of the sick children. She came out feeling better, but she still wouldn’t leave the children’s sides for more than 5 minutes for the next several days until the cold medicine fully kicked in.

Despite the trials and tribulations and her complaints to Sirius and Adrian, she really wouldn’t trade a minute of it. Harry, when he wasn’t shouting “no!” or refusing to be toilet-trained, or being a bit selfish, was an absolute treasure who was too curious for his own good and loved to make others laugh. He walked around and liked to pick up books and pretend to read like Rosalie and Adrian, always looking up every few seconds to make sure he was doing it right.

Neville, meanwhile, was the quieter of the two, and less curious, but he loved to pet Loki (who adored the attention) and loved hearing people sing or rhyme. He was more shy than Hadrian, but just as happy to play make-believe or try coloring pages from a book. Whenever Harry or Neville would produce a page for Adrian, he would add it to yet _another_ album he was working on and refused to throw away anything with more than a scribble or two, especially once they each worked out how to spell their names.

On a more somber note, Rosalie was looking into potential cures for Frank and Alice, but had minimal success. As she wasn’t a healer, she had somewhat limited resources, though several of her contacts were happy to provide the tools they had since they knew she was beginning medical research to help others. She was also doing extensive research on the Cruciatus, which the Black Library had plenty of books on and cursed-insanity which she could find some books on downstairs or by owl-order from some of the out-of-the-country sellers. She thought she was close to a breakthrough in understanding how to reverse some of the effects, though she still thought a full recovery was a bit out of reach. Sadly, she figured she’d soon need to delve into potions research and didn’t know many experts, but alas, it could wait until she finished her initial research.

Remus had taken to visiting twice a week as well, living in nearby muggle London, though Sirius was adamant he should move into Black Manor once Sirius got it cleaned sufficiently. Remus was a favorite of the boys because he always brought with him some small treat, be it a piece of candy, a picture book, or more crayons.

After Petunia Evans forced the Wills to be read and followed--which indeed secured her as Hadrian’s legal guardian--Remus was much better off and had been given the position of part-time tutor to Nymphadora Tonks and Cedric Diggory in both muggle studies and basic (non-magical) pre-Hogwarts subjects, since neither the Tonks or Diggorys much cared about his werewolf status so long as he wasn’t at their houses at the time of the transformation.

Now, Remus was better off monetarily and could afford his own permanent residence (for now), but Sirius still insisted and Remus really couldn’t afford to stay at his apartment long-term. Besides, Adrian was happy to have Remus work when Rosalie couldn’t. Rosalie felt downright rotten for missing so much work, but Adrian wouldn’t hear anything of it.

Rosalie never knew that the Potters were loaded. As in she’d never seen so much gold in her life _loaded_. Hadrian was practically a millionaire in muggle standards and Lily had ensured she had enough monthly income to pay for all of Harry’s expenses, though she was reasonably well off having published her research papers and her new novels. She didn’t know what to do with all that money, though she somewhat guiltily used some of it to buy books to research how to heal Frank and Alice since she’d covered Hadrian’s living costs for a while.

The Wills also re-established Sirius as Godfather and so he was to take in Hadrian legally if something happened to Petunia.  

................

Love is a powerful motivator--as is blackmail. A grieving mother might do almost anything for her son. When Mrs. Crouch was already dying and received a letter, she could at least give this last gift to her son.

................

On January 4, 1983, Bartemis Crouch Jr. died in Azkaban prison from health issues while fellow prisoner Lucius Malfoy continued his rather quick decent to madness.


	7. Chapter Seven

It was Remus who finally confirmed the link between Voldemort and Tom Riddle, having researched both along with Sirius. Funnily enough, he discovered the connection while bored. Tom Marvolo Riddle--how strange it was to him that his legal name would be Tom and not Thomas. He was pondering over this silly little note when tied to his last name: Riddle. Riddle seemed like a very interesting last name, implying a hint of mystery toward its owner as well, but Riddle was not a Pureblood name and the boy had disappeared entirely after his time at Hogwarts.

Voldemort showed up a few years later.

Clearly Voldemort was a made up name, chosen from French, meaning Flight from Death and didn’t belong to any Pureblood lines in the British or French magical worlds, despite his claims against muggles and muggleborns’ blood. In accordance with the Pureblood code of conduct, he took on the title Lord as a show of power, making him Lord Flight from Death.

Given his search for immortality, it only made sense that his name address such as well. How strange, Remus thought, that his name would have a V. He was only considering in his boredom how few names had V’s in them when he remembered Tom Riddle’s middle name being Marvolo. In passive curiosity, he wondered how many other letters aligned and came to a startling realization that most of them did; in fact, when one added “I am” before Voldemort, the names’ letter compositions matched perfectly.

Sirius had a great laugh over how the own idiot’s pride led to the confirmation of his legal identity.

And suddenly, they had a starting point for horcrux hunting.

..................

Except for Voldemort, she mostly hated the Death Eaters in a sort of passive way, hating their ideology and actions, but never encountering first-hand their presence. That would soon change.

Adrian Blott wasn’t stupid. He knew he was likely to be targeted for his neutrality towards blood status and his favoritism for first-generation witch Rosalie Ebony.

The five came out of a side alley, hidden in the shadows. They wore dark robes and masks that partially hid their faces. Adrian was in Diagon Alley in the light of the setting sun, mere meters from his own shop, when the first spell flew towards him. He, though unpracticed, remembered his school days enough to drop everything, duck, and pull out his wand.

“Reducto!” A Death Eater cast, followed by another’s “Bombarda!”

The sounds of spells alerted Rosalie that something wasn’t right. She cast protective charms around the baby-gate Harry was in and strode out of the store, witnessing several Death Eaters attacking Adrian who was beginning to lose. Five against one wasn’t fair.

“Incarcerous! Immobulus! Protego!” Rosalie shouted, taking down two of the Death Eaters which Adrian then fully immobilized while Rosalie handled the other three.

“Petrificus Totalus! Expelliarmus!” The Death Eater she targeted blocked the Petrificus Totalus, but didn’t manage to stop the Expelliarmus that thrust her wand away which Adrian rushed to grab and snap.

“Avada Kadevra!” Rosalie glared as she ducked and rolled, pulling herself back-to-back with Adrian to face off against the remaining two and the one now attempting to use the broken pieces of her wand.

“Call the aurors!” Rosalie ordered. Adrian wasted no time, sending out an alert while Rosalie distracted the three. Task completed, Adrian turned to the two with functioning wands and summoned them with simple Accio’s.

“Accio Death Eater wands!” As the two wands and the pieces of the other zoomed forwards, Rosalie bound the three and put up localized wards to prevent apparition of the Death Eaters.

“Well done, Rosie!”

“Thanks, Adrian. I haven’t actually dueled much; I think I should learn.”

“Good idea. I think I’m a bit rusty myself.”

A pop from a few meters away interrupted them. The man turned quite pale at the sight of the tied up Death Eaters and stuttered an explanation about going to get his colleagues. Honestly, the Ministry needed some work.

.................

Rosalie had recognized Peter Pettigrew under the mask and took extreme pleasure in not only capturing him, but adding a nightmare charm to his person. She’d somewhat recognized the woman, but couldn’t have said what her name was, only that she looked familiar. Statements taken, the group was arrested and the two were allowed to return to their families.

The next day, she found out why she’d recognized the girl, given that there was a warrant out for her arrest for questioning, the same for Pettigrew and another of the Death Eaters Adrian and she had captured. The paper only mentioned Adrian Blott as the heroic defender, but she didn’t mind.

She hadn’t done as well as she’d hoped in the actual fight though. She knew the spells backwards and forwards, but she didn’t have practical experience dueling, so she wasn’t as quick as she could be and hadn’t had much experience casting multiple spells one after another. She and Adrian both decided to ask Sirius for lessons.

................

The Ministry hadn’t been so busy and hectic in decades. Several employees were fired for accepting bribes, more still worked to the bone to force trials for the accused. Ministerial Candidate Fudge had been firmly established as taking bribes and had been forced to exit the race with his arrest.

Then again, Rosalie hardly took notice, caring for her two charges instead. Madam Augusta was busy with the added workload as well and had taken to leaving Neville with Rosalie for another day each week. Sirius, having made little substantial progress on the horcrux hunt, was miffed and bored out of his mind.

Though the war was over, the chaos of the trials continued and held most of the public’s interest; Sirius, while interested, was trying to focus heavily on the horcruxes, given that they--forgive the pun--were the crux of the matter. While Voldemort might be “dead” now, being in an evasive form, as solid as smoke, as long as his horcruxes existed, he could (and probably would) be brought back. Even if no one destroyed the horcruxes, they needed to all be firmly out of Death Eater hands, but Voldemort had played his horcruxes close to his chest.

If their guesses were correct, then when Lucius Malfoy confessed to owning an object, an empty Diary, which was currently being held in the Ministry, it was a horcrux. However, though one of the Death Eaters (Crabbe, he thinks it was) had commented that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had entrusted Bellatrix Lestrange with a precious goblet, any other horcruxes couldn’t yet be located yet. Hell, those were hardly any leads at all! They’d have to break into the Ministry to poison the Diary and search all of the Lestranges’ property for some fancy goblet.

They did have one other lead though--Tom Riddle himself.

Sirius swore to follow Riddle’s every move from infancy to adulthood so as to track down the horcrux’s likely locations and to discover what they even were.

.................

Orion Black died on March 13, following a month-long stay in St. Mungo’s after finding out Regulus had died. They could never name what had put him in the hospital, given that it was a psychosomatic illness combined with depression and demented raving about the Black name dying out (with Regulus’s lack of son and Sirius’s disownment) and going to the dogs (with Andromeda Black, Sirius’s oldest cousin, marrying a muggleborn named Tonks).

Sirius hadn’t ever cared for his father and though he visited him in the hospital a few times, he ultimately was rather indifferent to his death. All of the Black holdings officially shifted to Sirius, though he had to void Orion’s lease for the property he’d been occupying outside of London since Walpurga’s death. Thus, Black Manor, having no other heir, was officially... his. His family had disowned him, but he’d outlived them all and now owned all their shit, himself being only a little over twenty. Life is funny sometimes.

Sirius stepped into Black Manor for the first time since his father’s death and felt as though the house just seemed... well, different.

“Kreacher!”

“Yes, Master Blood Traitor Sirius Black, sir?” Kreacher croaked out, looking down over his large crooked nose at the floor.

“With Father’s death, I’ll leave some of the terms of your service up to you. Do you wish to continue working here knowing the property is now mine?”

“Kreacher is Black elf. Kreacher deserves his ‘ead posted on the wall with the others!”

“If you can have another elf contact me upon your death, I can arrange for your head to be mounted on the wall even if you are no longer in my service.”

“Kreacher will not be dismissed! Kreacher is Black elf and will do work as commanded. You disrespect Kreacher with such speech.”

“Then you will work under three conditions:

  1. you must never have contact with cousins Bellatrix or Narcissa unless I allow it, nor may you contact any others without my express permission or you will be disgracefully removed after a severe and painful punishment,
  2. you follow my orders with the same enthusiasm as though I was my father. I am your Master and you will treat me as such so long as you are in my service,
  3. You are to treat any guests I bring with cordiality and respect, unless I give you express permission otherwise.



These are the rules, and if there are followed, your head will be mounted on the wall with the rest. If you, however, fail at these three requests, I will make sure the rest of your existence will be in a state of disgrace and dishonor. Or, you may resign right now. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Master Blood Traitor Sirius Black, sir.”

“Call me Master Sirius or you’ll be scrubbing all the toilets in the house until they’re clean enough to eat from. And begin cleaning; I intend to redecorate the Manor to its former glory.” Kreacher let out a muffled mourning cry and trudged upstairs. Sirius walked over to the ward’s anchor and began altering the settings on entering, ensuring that no one got in without his say so. Then he began climbing the stairs, already planning to how bring light into the dim excuse for a Manor. The Blacks might be Ancient, but they were not exceptionally influential and had lost their main house a century ago, never reclaiming another property to be the main Manor.

Sirius began investigating the belongings remaining in the Manor. He wanted to get rid of anything with a dark aura that could potentially hurt someone. He started with the top floor and promised to work his way down. On the top floor were four large bedrooms--one master bedroom, two smaller ones, and one even smaller guest bedroom with a small house elf quarters room off the side and a connecting bathroom with each room. He began in Walburga and Orion’s room.

The master bedroom was very dark and Sirius had to carefully (for many creatures had invaded the once impeccable home) open curtains and spell windows clean, with the layer of dirt they had on them. Immediately, he could more easily see. He cast every cleaning charm he knew before approaching anything else in the room, having to deal with a small infestation of Cornish Pixies hiding under the bed. The nightstands to either side of the bed were cleared out easily enough and Sirius decided to keep the bare minimum of his parents’ belongings. Under the bed was a bit of a mess after the pixies, but he cleaning that up too, followed by ordering Kreacher to clean all the linens in the house by next week. The drawers around the room were more difficult to sort through, given that there were several objects hidden within the layers of clothing and extra bedding. Soon enough, he had five shrunken down boxes of items for charity and another three of dark objects to be disposed of. He next moved onto the closet, finding not one, but two Boggarts which he quickly forced away.

He sorted through that too, and the bathroom, before calling it a day. The next day he tackled cleaning the house elf quarters before bypassing his room and walking over to Regulus’s. The room looked no different than two years ago, when Reg moved out. It seemed Kreacher had seen it fit to keep this room, if no other, in pristine condition.

Knowing this room would take longer than the ones from yesterday, he closed the door and plopped on the floor; it was time to get to work.

.............

He was halfway through sorting through Regulus’s drawers when he found it. The locket was fairly large, just barely small enough to fit in a closed fist, and radiating dark energy. Sirius found the necklace mixed up in Regulus’s Slytherin school robes that he’d never had the heart to throw away, locked tight in a warded drawer keyed only to Regulus or Sirius. Carefully, after testing the locket for curses, he carefully opened it and it began shaking violently before displaying an image, as though it were a projector.

The scene was horrific, Regulus’s dead body stared at him, piled atop the bodies of his friends, Rosalie crying desperately over the vacant eyes of Harry Potter before turning to him and furiously mouthing only two words, over and over, “your fault.”

He closed the locket before he even noticed that the snake on the front formed an S. Whatever picture had been inside was destroyed, but the S itself was a clue to the previous owner. Sirius might not have been the biggest fan of the founders, but he did know the legends about them, that each built a chamber within the school, that each left an object--a relic--to the future generations: Godric’s sword, Salazar’s locket, Hufflepuff’s Cup, and Rowena’s Diadem.

Legend varied slightly on the description of the objects, given that they were either lost or tightly kept secrets, but Sirius Black was no fool and knew the reason his brother would have this object after his betraying the dark. He really had turned the tables on Voldemort, providing his brother with a tool of the Dark Lord’s destruction. God, he loved Reg. He sent a silent thank you to Regulus and pocketed the object, deciding to return to finish tomorrow.

...............

“Rosalie!” Sirius stage-whispered in front of the Harry to his amusement.

“What, Siri?” Rosalie asked, playing along before noticing Sirius’s, well, seriousness.

“I found one. Well, Regulus found one and made sure I’d find it!”

“You mean that-”

“Yeah!”

“Oh my god. I’ve got to tell Adrian. You acquired the basilisk venom, right?”

“Already done, as you well know. Put Harry to bed early tonight: group meeting and I’m breaking out the champagne!”

................

The three adults stared at the necklace. Just stared.

“What... what do we do with it.” Sirius asked, nodding to the vial of carefully sealed basilisk venom.

“Well, given that we must poison the locket, I say we pour the venom in the locket.” Adrian replied, half-heartedly.

“No.” Sirius said with finality. “It moves too much when opened and we might end up spilling the venom which would be very, _very_ bad.”

“I agree with Sirius on this one. I say, unfortunately, that we must destroy the object with the venom, obliterating the container and horcrux both.”

“But it’s an object of the Founders!” Sirius protested. Adrian perked up.

“It’s also a horcrux and I don’t want to risk-”

“Guys.”

“-It’s literally a historical artifact, we can’t just-”

“-For all our sakes and Riddle’s death, we must ensure-”

“Guys.”

“-Merlin’s sake, this thing deserves to be-”

“Guys! Honestly you two, you’ll wake Harry. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m taking this-” he said, grabbing the locket, “and taking it where we should have taken it in the first place. Where we took Harry for help.”

“The Goblins, of course!” Rosalie said, both excited to revisit the Goblins and saddened by her forgetfulness which could’ve resulted in an accident.

“Yes, of course. To the goblins.” Sirius said, moving toward the Floo before pausing. “Wait, is Gringotts even open this late?”

“I’ve been in communications with Ragnok. He said he would be willing to come in whenever necessary since prolonged exposure to a horcrux has negative effects.”

“You talk to the goblins?”

“I talk with several of them, yes. I interviewed several for my most recent project as well as my early studies into the different magical creatures’ way of life. So long as I followed the customs regarding polite conversation and was never intentionally rude, they were happy enough that someone was looking into their species.

Goblins are, after all, equal to wizards in intelligence, even if they have generally shorter life-spans. Plus, their metalsmithing capabilities are unparalleled and their healing abilities in response to severe illnesses are incredible. I’ve consulted them on handling Alice and Frank, but they’ve never dealt with insanity by Cruciatus, though they’ve presented theories.” Sirius could only blink at her while Adrian sighed as he heard Hadrian start crying from the noise they’d made. Should’ve cast a silencing charm.

“Go on, Rosie. I’ll keep Sirius here so he doesn’t cause the Goblin Wars to start up again and we’ll look after Hadrian for an hour or two.” When she looked back, uncertain, he urged her again. “Go! We can watch after him for a few hours, we’ve done it before.” Rosalie nodded and grabbed a pen and paper before disappearing into the Floo.

“Is it my turn or your turn if it’s a diaper?”

“Yours.”

“I thought it was yours.”

“Coin toss?”

“Heads!”

“It was tails.”

“Damn it all. Fine.” Sirius said, trudging upstairs to deal with Hadrian, hoping beyond hope that he had a clean diaper. Rosalie had successfully trained the two toddlers to use the potty when awake, but when asleep, it was beyond them, being only two.

“ _Please have a clean nappy, please have a clean nappy, pleas--aw, crap.”_

...................

Rosalie returned two hours later, it now being after eleven at night. She stowed away the book she used with notes on Frank and Alice’s potential treatment, mentally promising to talk them over with Augusta later this week. With the locket dealt with, she was feeling rather optimistic.

Hadrian had refused to go back to sleep, so Adrian was rocking him in his arms and humming, which was working surprisingly well despite Hadrian’s attempts at resisting (and insisting he wasn’t a _baby_ ). Hadrian’s eyes slipped shut before he tried to wake himself up to no avail. Rosalie cooed and shifted Hadrian into her own arms, carrying him up to bed. Soon enough, she felt her own eyes weighing down, causing her to blink several times in an attempt to remove the feeling. She retreated downstairs to Sirius and Adrian’s whispers.

“Moony dropped by while you were gone. He’s still working with the Order, but thought we should know that... well. According to “a reliable informant,” Pettigrew was spotted in London earlier with several other Death Eaters to raid the Bones Family home. Remus proposed that he likely escaped the Ministry’s clutches due to being an unregistered animagus.

The name rung in her head like a gong.

_Pettigrew._

And she suddenly had an idea.

..................

Rosalie Ebony may have wanted blood, but she was smart enough to realize that an eye for an eye made the whole world blind and that following in the footsteps of the Dark by torturing was far from moral. She found ways to ensure the public shaming of Death Eaters instead.

_The Rise of Voldemort and the Death Eaters,_ she thought she’d name it. Bit of a long title, but accurate in it’s depiction. The book, for she intended it to be quite long when she finished, would self-update depending on which ‘suspected’ Death Eaters could be confirmed/denied. She would explain who Voldemort is, his muggle and manipulation-based (by love potion) heritage, with notes on how he came to power, and all his known and suspected acquaintances with notes on his entire life story, minus the horcruxes of course, so as to prevent Voldemort from suspecting something.

She wouldn’t publish under her regular name this time though, but rather a pseudonym so as to confuse the Death Eaters. This way, people would see Death Eaters, rather than just neighbors, _know_ who they were, what they’ve done, refuse to sell to them...

The time for Voldemort and his followers to rest in the shadows was over if Rosalie had to drag them kicking and screaming into the light.

She wouldn’t let her sister’s murder go unpunished. She would see each Death Eater have a trial. She longed for a day when the trials were over, Voldemort was dead, and Hadrian could grow up in peace.

She would have a while yet to wait, it seemed.


	8. Chapter Eight

After Rosalie finished her manuscript for _The Rise of Voldemort and the Death Eaters_ , the Ebony family and company found themselves antsy. With little to do--unfortunately, much like the public--Sirius especially found himself frustrated with the lack of action. Thankfully, Remus, ever the sensible one, had an idea.

“I might know a way we can get into the Ministry.”

“How?” Several voices echoed. Rosalie bounced Harry in her lap, Neville staying with his Gran for the day.

“What if we tried to get government backing for the--Voldemort book?”

“That would get us in the Ministry, but they’d notice if we snuck off.”

“I did already think of that. Merlin’s beard, I was a Marauder, thanks. A time-turner. I have an old friend that owes me.”

“That’s still not an answer, Remus.” Rosalie complained. Sirius was nodding thoughtfully however.

“Actually, I think it is. We get in, someone goes to the ‘restroom,’ and takes the time-turner with them. Then that person puts on James’s cloak--the one we found in their things--and finds the diary, poisons it, then re-takes the place of the original in the restroom!”

“That’s brilliant! That could actually work but it would be suspicious to bring anyone but myself. We’re trying to keep my and Hadrian’s connections to the Potters to a minimum. That rules out both of you, Sirius, Remus. Adrian, you are my publisher and you can come if you truly wish to, but only one of us can sneak off. Remus, how soon can you get that time-turner?”

“I’ll send him an owl immediately.”

“I want to get the horcrux.” Adrian exclaimed suddenly.

“What?” Three voices asked.

“Waaa?” Hadrian repeated. Adrian spared an adoring glance at Hadrian before continuing seriously.

“I may be old, but I’m not incapable. I can carry out complex magic just as well as any of you. You forget, I’ve read a good portion of the books in my shop and helped write one or two in my day. I want to do something useful for once.”

“Adrian, we didn’t mean to make you sound incapable, it’s just--”

“I know, I know. But, let an old man have his little adventure?”

“Adrian, this won’t be a ‘little adventure;’ this will be breaking into the magical artifacts department of the Ministry. As in a federal offense, if you get caught.”

“Kids never give any thought to what crazy things us older folks did back in the day, just assume we were all boring layabouts. This wouldn’t be my first time breaking the law.” Everyone raised eyebrows at that, but Adrian didn’t feel compelled to share the stories of his own misadventures in school and beyond.

“Adrian, are you absolutely sure?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, then I guess we have a plan.”

.........

The plan didn’t quite work as planned. First, Remus couldn’t get the time-turner. Second, Hadrian caught a cold, so none of the adults were functioning on a full even five hours of sleep. And third, they couldn’t find a map of the Ministry anywhere to find where in Merlin’s name the magical artifact section was.

And that was all before enacting the plan.

..........

The actual situation ended up a little like this:

“...-bsolutely, agree, Sir. You raise a good point, but--” Rosalie was cut off by Adrian right on time. He’d been shifting for ages now, so his excuse was ready.

“Pardon me, but where might I find the men’s room?” The Ministry representative seemed a bit surprised, but otherwise unfazed as she directed him to the third floor.

“Thank you.” And Adrian was off. He found the elevator quickly enough and read the floor signs, and took a guess, hoping to Merlin that Basement -2, Department of Magical Law Enforcement would include magical artifacts impounded by the aurors. Purposefully avoiding the eyes of anyone else in the lift, Adrian selected the button and waited, refraining from checking his watch. When the lift finally reached the second floor below ground, Adrian strode confidently out of the elevator, behind a corner, and threw on James’s invisibility cloak. Carefully taking out the basilisk venom vial from his coat pocket, he set about finding the diary without magic, since doing a tracing spell in the Ministry’s law enforcement level was a Bad Idea.

Within a few minutes, he found what he _hoped_ was the right door and carefully eased inside. With a quick glance, he saw two people inside--one auror, and two Ministry employees, judging by their clothes.

Seeing the aisles sorted alphabetically, he searched immediately for the M’s, hoping the case will be listed under Malfoy.

Thankfully, it is. Unfortunately, he now has to open the box, retrieve the diary, put poison on it, and get out without anyone noticing which would be find. Except when one adds poison to a horcrux, it gets... messy. Everyone in the room would undoubtably see and hear the effects. If he could find a non-magical means to delay the effect, however...

Basilisk venom may be very deadly, but it is magical. As such, it does not act like normal venom. Knowing this, Adrian quietly lifts the top off the box, thankful that no one else was on his row, and rips a think string off his own robe.

Tying a knot to one end and punching a small hole in the box with a quill, he carefully slid the string through the box to hang off the top. That done, he dipped the string into the vial of basilisk venom and carefully placed the diary directly between the string and the rest of the boxes’ contents. If he was right, he would have several minutes before the venom coalesced enough to form a drop and then land on the diary. If he wasn’t, then all their work had been ruined. He ran back to the corner he’d used before, ripped off the invisibility cloak, and proceeded to the lift.

“...-but the basis of their claims is--oh, hello, Adrian. Did you get lost?”

“Maybe a bit?” He said self-consciously, rubbing the back of his neck. The Ministry worker looked sympathetic.

“I still get lost in this building half the time. Don’t worry about it.” The two left soon enough and Adrian realized he had failed.

Until Remus reported that the next Order meeting mentioned something apparently going on with Malfoy’s magical artifacts in the Ministry and Adrian realized he had actually succeeded.

Another horcrux down. Who knew how many to go.

............

The next place they decided to search was Riddle’s previous residences--mainly, the orphanage and the houses his parents had lived in. This time, Remus and Sirius volunteered to charm their way into the Orphanage--if anyone was still there--and into the remains of the Gaunt and Riddle families. Thankfully, the Orphanage was easy to sweep given that it had been torn down the year after Riddle left. That left only the houses still to investigate.

Deciding it was best not to split up, they approached Voldemort’s father’s house first. The Riddle Manor was rather unassuming, being in a muggle neighborhood. Though the Riddles had not been lacking in money, the house had become very dilapidated through disuse.

Unfortunately, after looking in every crack and crevice and daring to risk a little magic, the men found absolutely nothing of interest, though they did find some hidden muggle cash from decades ago, which was cool.

They moved on to the Gaunt home near dusk. Pulling out the “torches” Rosalie had given them for light to avoid magic, the two pushed through the barely-standing door. Apparently, when several murders occur in a house, people decide it’s haunted and shouldn’t be bought. Supposedly, one can feel a dark presence if you sneak in the house--it had been a popular dare for teenagers for years--but the house looked ready to collapse any minute.

Not daring to use magic, the two wizards shared and look and pocketed their wands. Putting on their dragon hide gloves, the two began exploring the house. They searched and searched and searched, but found nothing except some termites and roaches.

Apparently the termites weren’t a new addition to the house as Sirius found himself falling through the wooden floor by a garishly orange ugly chair.

Once Remus was no longer panicking or laughing his arse off, he helped Sirius up to leave, when his flashlight reflected off of something.

“Is--is that...-?”

“The symbol of the deathly hallows. Also known as the Peverell crest.”

“Do you feel that?” Remus asked Sirius and Sirius closed his eyes to focus on the sensations that came more easily to the werewolf. He couldn’t be sure, but he felt as though the ring had a dark aura about it. Sirius nodded and remus used an old pot to scoop up the ring, careful not to touch it, even with his gloves.

“To the goblins?” Sirius asked.

“To the goblins.”

..........

Though they suspected Nagini was a horcrux and that Bellatrix had possession of one, the Ebony entourage didn’t know if there were any more horcruxes--or how to find them if there were.

_.........._

_Dear Sirius,_

_I really must insist we talk about Harry Potter. I’m using Fawkes to deliver this message so that you may not ignore it. I fear that Harry’s caregiver has mysteriously disappeared along with Harry._

_Meet me in Hogwarts. I’ve included a portkey to the Hospital Wing for noon tomorrow and trust you can find your way to my office from there. I’ve taken to fancying Laffy Taffy, lately._

  * _Albus Dumbledore_



............

“Sirius, welcome. I’m glad you could come.” Dumbledore had a small grandfatherly smile on his face with his eyes twinkling. Sirius wasn’t fooled in the least.

“You didn’t exactly give me much choice, Dumbledore. And you should know the Black Library has such interesting books on warding, including how to keep out a Phoenix, so you’ll find the trick won’t work twice.” Dumbledore’s smile dwindled into a neutral expression of seriousness.

“Harry Potter is missing.”

“And whose fault is that? Oh yeah: yours.”

“Regardless of who is at fault, the fact remains that--”

“That you managed to lose a toddler. How long’s he been missing?”

“Well, the trace I placed on his guardian apparently didn’t take. He hasn’t been seen in the muggle world as far as we can tell... for several months.” Sirius, knowing that the last time ‘Harry’ was in the muggle world had been over a year ago, raised an eyebrow.

“And you only thought to tell me _now?”_

“Well, we had several leads, you see, and--”

“I don’t want to hear your bullshit, _sir_. I want to know where the hell my godson is. How do you just lose a woman and a baby?!”

“Well, you see she changed residences and... didn’t see fit to inform us.”

“No kidding.” Sirius deadpanned. Honestly, he was sick of this. Keeping his occlumency shields up, he debated what to do. How could he avoid the situation without Dumbledore becoming suspicious?

“I bet it’s Snivellus’s fault. That rotten Death Eater--”

“Now, Sirius--”

“--scum. How the hell did that rat bastard get in the Order in the first--”

“Enough! Sirius if you will not take this seriously, then I’m afraid I must resort to drastic measures. I had hoped you might have gotten over this silly school rivalry, but I can see now that you haven’t. I’m sorry, Sirius. I see I must try again another day with another tactic. _Obliviate!”_

But the spell never reached Sirius, as Fawkes swooped down. The spell rebounded off his gleaming red feathers directly into Dumbledore’s face, who stood dazed for several precious seconds.

“Thanks, Fawkes.” Sirius said, smirking. He wiped the smirk off his face as Dumbledore began to come to. Having planned for almost anything, Sirius took out James’s cloak and hurriedly covered his body with it and a notice-me-not spell. Dumbledore merely shook his head and ambled over to Fawkes while Sirius made his way out of the office--thankfully not Albus’s usual, since this one lacked portraits.

As he walked back to the Hospital Wing he ambled the halls leisurely since the students were all at lunch. It gave him time to think--until a woman with bright blond hair--pale enough to look like Lucius had a younger sister--clutched onto his arm.

The arm that was _invisible_.

“There are seven; three left. You’re on the right track. One is in this very school. I don’t want my daughter around that kind of influence or to have that kind of future. Find the room of Hidden Things and you will find what you seek.”  
“Who--?”

“Pandora Yarwood-Lovegood.”

“You’re a Seer.”

“Runs in the blood, you see. Quick, seventh floor, the Room of Requirement. The students will be getting out of lunch soon enough.”

“I’m glad you got the job.”  
“I hear you’re partially responsible for that. Consider this my thanks.” With that, the woman disappeared and Sirius took a moment to sigh before reversing his course to find the nearest staircase.

Five agonizing flights later--Merlin, he needs to get back in shape--he reaches the seventh floor corridor. Now he, Remus, James, and Peter once upon a time had found the Room of Requirement by accident. The Marauders Map was a wonderful tool, but not entirely without flaws. If someone--like Filius Flitwick--was to disappear off of the map randomly after pacing a hallway thrice, well it raised some suspicion in such a strange castle as this.

So Sirius trudged to the hall and went up and down and back up again until a door appeared. Hoping this to be the “Room of Hidden Things” like Lovegood had said, he opened the door and was faced with a warehouse full of mostly junk.

This was gonna be a pain in the arse.

“I should have dragged Remus here.” Sirius complained. He used a little spell he’d found in the Black Library to enhance one’s ability to read auras. He banished several large piles that stood in his way as he walked towards any dark signature he could find. He wanted to make sure this school was safe for children, regardless of it the object was a horcrux. Anything with a dark signature, he destroyed.

When he came to the darkest signature of them all, he felt almost sick with the darkness the object emitted.

Opening his eyes again, he saw a glimmering diadem of blue stones and silver, looking perfect for Ravenclaw.

Figuring the item must have some significance for Voldemort to have chosen to make it a horcrux, Sirius cancelled the spell, absconded with the item, and portkeyed back to Gringotts with a diadem carefully wrapped up and hidden in his pocket.

.............

“And if there are only two left...”

“The goblet.” Remus said.

“And Nagini.” Rosalie sighed. “Fudge.”

“Fudge?”

“Little ears, boys. Little ears.” She nodded toward Harry and Neville playing in the corner with Adrian who was emphatically imitating animals for the boys to guess. Right now they were on ‘Niffler’ and the boys giggled as Adrian took off his shiny watch and pretended to stuff it in his stomach like a kangaroo pouch.

............

The Death Eaters had not been sitting idle. Attacks had been placed on Azkaban with no success. Muggles all across Britain found themselves snatched and made into messages for the masses. Wizards and witches that openly opposed Voldemort’s agenda found themselves harassed, beaten, killed, raped, and so on.

Apparently Pettigrew and two other key players--thus far unknown--had managed to coalesce many of the Death Eater forces not yet in Azkaban in order to cause mass chaos and panic.

Apparently moving out of the Evanses house had been a good idea, seeing as it burned down three weeks after the fifth horcrux had been dealt with. Thankfully, the house had been empty and the only one to lose money and supplies was the housing company that temporarily owned it.

Hiding behind the identity of Rosalie and Hadrian Ebony was the only reason she and Harry Potter weren’t dead.

Having no luck finding Harry Potter only made the Death Eaters angrier.

............

When they attacked Augusta Longbottom, it was far from a surprise. She had openly opposed the Death Eater agenda and lived alone except for her infant grandson, who was staying with a family friend for the time being.

Thankfully, Augusta was pretty badass and had planned on being a target, leading to her leaving Neville with Rosalie more and more often. When she got a feeling she was being watched, she left Neville with Rosalie and sat calmly at home with a warm mug of tea and her wand in hand. When the three figures broke through the wards, she was ready.

“Are you here to kill me?”

“Something like that.” A nasally voice replied. Augusta rolls her eyes.

“Well, you’re going to have to try really, really hard.” She lectured. She gently put down her tea and shot off a powerful blasting hex at each figure within half a second. Two of the three manage to defend against the blow, but the third was hit when one of the others deflected the spell towards him, killing him instantly.

The other two she attacked separately, first with a rope-tying spell, then with a powerful stunner, and then with a slicing jinx to the chest. The second died choking on his own blood. The first was stuck still in the ropes and Augusta sent a strong stunner and expelliarmus at him before giving a haughty snicker and readjusting her raven-feathered hat.

Grabbing her red bag and emergency portkeys, she reached for the three criminals including the two dead ones, and left her house elf to clean up the mess.

“Eh-em. Excuse me,” she said to the terrified looking receptionist, “I need to see some Aurors.”

.............

Augusta had been lucky that her living captive was Barty Crouch Junior, who hadn’t even bothered with a disguise. Barty Crouch Senior was arrested for aiding and abetting  the escape of a prisoner from national wizarding prison. Barty Crouch Junior sung like a canary when given Veritaserum and proper incentive.

Ultimately, Barty Crouch Senior is given three years in Azkaban, Barty Crouch Junior is given the Kiss, and Abraxas Malfoy is arrested on suspicion of criminal activity tied to the Death Eaters, and ultimately convicted with an eight year Azkaban sentence.

Pettigrew, like the rat he was, still managed to evade capture miraculously.

Someone in the Ministry had apparently tipped him off, leading Voldemort to likewise flee, though rumor had it that he wasn’t in corporeal form, but rather was a wraith for the time being.

Sirius hoped it was that Umbitch lady at his trial. That way he could see her thrown in jail, see how she felt about Azkaban.

..........

With almost no leads on Voldemort’s location, Rosalie continued working on potential cures for Frank and Alice’s mental instability. She hoped that her research thus far might be a breakthrough in the case, but she wasn’t entirely sure that her theory had merit yet. For now, she sent the idea to several of her contacts to look over, to see if her logic was sound. If it was, then they could move to treatment. If not, then it was back to square one.

Meanwhile, Augusta was much less tense now that the attack had happened. People knew not to mess with her now, so Neville was safe again. For now, he could stay with her again, while she held peace of mind in his safety, but she also felt safe now to interact more with the Ebony bunch, becoming less tense and shut off around them. She would visit for holidays and bring Neville along for playdates. She would spend the day with the group and didn’t complain one bit that a werewolf was playing choo-choo with her grandson, Hadrian, and a large black dog. Adrian was down watching the shop again, but he came up to tell Rosalie that she might want to come see this.

Standing innocently in the shop was Narcissa Malfoy Black, holding a small infant with blond hair.

“My sister Andromeda mentioned you had experience babysitting and had a child of your own around my Draco’s age. I was hoping that you might let Draco attempt to make some friends.” Narcissa said without preamble. The toddler in her arms wiggled and tugged on Narcissa’s hair, causing her to look down at him adoringly. Rosalie nodded slowly.

“I think we can work with that.”

.............

Draco Black, Hadrian Ebony, and Neville Longbottom sat together coloring one some muggle paper with crayons and Narcissa, Rosalie, and Augusta sipped tea while Remus and Adrian worked downstairs and Padfoot hid from Narcissa who he feared might somehow recognize his animagus form.

It was... nice. Domestic. Peaceful. Rosalie never wanted it to end.

.............

Soon the boys turned three and Rosalie started the lengthy process of teaching them the alphabet and eventually how to read. Draco had become a regular at the home above Flourish and Blotts since Narcissa was working now for Olivander as his apprentice, in hopes of becoming his successor since he had no children.

It was actually Narcissa who made the observation.

“Perhaps you should be a teacher. You handle children remarkably well.” And the idea was born.

Every Saturday and Sunday evening, Flourish and Blotts would hold ‘classes’ for students of all ages who wished to get a basic informal magical and muggle education cheaply. Reaching out to squibs and anyone with experience in both worlds, they compiled a rather rag-tag group of teachers to teach through primary--and then secondary--schooling for some extra pocket money.

It was an instant hit with classes that filled half the store on some days. Adrian decided he would need to expand the back of the store, which hadn’t been done since his father added what was now the Magical Creatures section in ’68.

Rosalie had only a small part in the group, having no professional training, but she helped with the littlest kids. Nymphadora, who liked to wander off in class to see the toddlers, could often be seen alongside Rosalie, changing her hair color for the kids’ entertainment and promising that she wanted to grow up to be just like Rosalie.

.............

When the little shop next door closed, Rosalie signed a lease, and the Lily Pad Center of Learning officially moves a door down. She makes the highest-most level of the building into several bedrooms, just in case.

_.............._

Though she was teaching part-time now in an unofficial capacity, she still had a little time to write. She’d missed writing, so she found herself working on yet another manuscript, this time on early childhood development, using research, her own experience, and the experience of the parents that walk through the door for the tutoring. It doesn’t sell as well as several of her other works, but that might be because she offers if free of charge to anyone that comes through the door of the Lily Pad and asks for a copy.

..............

Hadrian was as bubbly and adorable as ever, of course. He was as happy as a three-year-old could be, and Rosalie hoped that somewhere, Lily and James were proud of how she was raising their son.

Her son.

..............

When aurors finally break down the wards on the Lestrange Manor, the group chooses to take the opportunity to enter the house. Bellatrix was nowhere to be found, so the aurors quickly moved on. But Remus was chosen to investigate because he lost a bet with Sirius because of his werewolf senses. Treading carefully with liquid luck running through his veins and the invisibility cloak shielding him from any potentially prying eyes, Remus walked around the mansion, hoping to find the dark signature of a horcrux.

Unfortunately, because this was Lestrange Manor, there were several equally dark objects inside that needed to be investigated. When his senses pulled him towards the ceiling, he cast a levitation spell on himself and ascended. But his senses didn’t lead him to the ceiling; they lead him to the ostentatious chandelier. And right smack middle of it, was a golden goblet radiating evil.

Remus collected the Goblet and disappeared the way he came before apparating to Gringotts.

Six down, one to go.

..............

Finally, after over a year of research, Rosalie felt her treatment for Frank and Alice might just work. The people specializing in magical Healing confirmed that the treatment, while experimental and potentially harmful, was theoretically sound. Now she just needed to get Augusta’s permission to perform an experimental treatment that would knowingly harm the Longbottoms--hopefully temporarily.

Rosalie knew that if she wasn’t doing this for Neville, then she wouldn’t be doing this at all. This would be a painful treatment for everyone.

She sincerely hoped she wasn’t putting her friends in unnecessary pain for no reason.

..............

The Cruciatus Curse wasn’t a source of actual bodily pain, but simulated pain registered directly by the brain. The pain is driven by exponentially increased sensitivity to the skin, meaning even the weight of gravity hurts like hell. It’s unbelievably hard to push through the pain enough for conscious thought beyond the most basic like “I must survive” or “I must save my baby,” leading a focus for any protective magic or magic at the time of the spell--which is very important. It is that focus that is the trigger for initiating the reversal, though it’s affects at first seem almost detrimental.

The focus becomes a trigger for moments of lucidness once aligned with pain, unfortunately. The pain forces a moment of clarity, while the trigger returns the person to partial sanity; the time this sanity lasts for depends on the emotional connection to the trigger--looser connections can bring about mere seconds of sanity, while powerful tethers could return a person to almost full sanity within a few sessions.

It’s considered unethical because the person cannot consent while insane and it is forcing pain onto a patient; if the focus presented was not their focus at the time of the onset of the mental destabilization, then it could be a forced Pavlovian association of the focus with pain.

They prayed to Merlin that Neville was Frank and Alice’s focus as treatment began with Augusta’s consent.

.............

They started small. The professional brought forth a picture of Neville and then gave both Alice and Frank the equivalent of a papercut.

No reaction.

They tried more pain--first a small bruise, then a larger cut.

Frank and Alice’s eyes became slightly less unfocused and Rosalie allowed herself to hope for Frank, Alice, and Neville.

.............

Eventually, they had to increase the pain and the exposure to the focus, meaning that Neville had to witness his parents suffering stomach aches and the feeling of a broken bone, but they recognized his face.

They would see him and start crying because their boy was back. Twenty minutes later, they would again be unresponsive.

But it was progress.

Soon they learned that increased exposure to the focus even in the absence of pain after the onset of treatment could bring times of lucidity. These times began small--less than a minute, five minutes... until they reached for several hours and then days. Treatment continued for another month before it was decided that Frank and Alice could go home, so long as they had a healer on-call and Augusta was there to watch over them.

..............

Neville smiled so brightly when his parents said his name.

They don’t return the _same_ , but they’re significantly more aware of the world around them and recognize their own son, which is better than before.


	9. Chapter Nine

The search for Voldemort and Nagini continued fruitlessly for many months. Without a body to track, it was nearly impossible to find his location. Even a wraith form should have been traceable, unless he was under impressive wards.

But they figured they didn’t need to search for Voldemort himself. Using a ritual from the Black Library, they used one of Peter Pettigrew’s old trinkets to determine his location, trusting that it would at least provide a lead for Voldemort.

The ritual would take at least four days and needed to begin on a full moon, so they had to wait, but it would theoretically pass through even the strongest of wards.

The wait was agonizing, but seeing Frank and Alice walking around again made it so worth it.

..............

While waiting, the Ministry search for corruption continued and found new fruit: the Minister’s trusted protégé, Delores Umbridge was sent to jail for crimes against the nation.

Sirius was rather glad the pink toad was no longer a sight he might need to subject himself to.

.............

The Forbidden Forest.

That little rat was hiding out beside Hogwarts, near _children_. The little vermin was probably with his master and Nagini too.

They needed to take care of this immediately.

So Sirius and Rosalie trudged through Scotland to find the Forbidden Forest while Adrian babysat Neville, Harry, and Draco since Narcissa was taking Augusta for a day to the spa while Frank and Alice had a Healers visit. Poor Remus drew the short straw and had to run the shop since it was Adrian’s turn to babysit.

He was just happy the potty-training was successful enough that the kids no longer needed their diapers changed during the day.

Sirius and Rosalie were both anxious. While Rosalie was knowingly about to face her sister’s murderer, Sirius was about to be face-to-face with the man who betrayed his friends and led to the murder.

If both happened to be thinking rather nasty spells at the moment, well, they couldn’t be blamed for that.

What they eventually stumbled upon was rather morbid. Apparently, one of Voldemort’s followers had betrayed him, so as an example, he let Nagini do as she wished. The screams were horrifying.

Pettigrew stood at Voldemort’s side, vaguely green compared to his pale and dirty complexion. Apparently the forest hadn’t done him any favors, as he looked unusually thin and was trembling faintly.

Sirius couldn’t find it within himself to feel any pity for his former friend.

Voldemort himself was a sight to behold. A dark misty shape, hissing in what the two assumed was Parseltongue, hovered high enough of the ground to have a height advantage, as if to make up for his lack of a corporeal form. Dark circles were around his eyes and his hair--what they could make of it in the mist--looked flaccid and oily. He looked a step from death.

The Death Eaters present were unmasked. Rosalie and Sirius recognized Snape immediately. He looked pale too, sickly, but less dirty than Pettigrew. Obviously he had some sort of residence other than the forest, then again, Rosalie had heard he was teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts.

She still didn’t know why that was, given his role in the war. What did Dumbledore have up his sleeve?

They knew that their time before discovery was limited. Once Nagini finished, she would likely smell them.

They had to be quicker than that. In sync, the two nodded at each other and cast their spells, first an anti-apparition spell, then an anti-portkey spell. Sirius added an anti-animagus spell just in case as well.

Then the first Death Eater noticed them. From then on, there was no room for thought, just battle.

Bombarda!

Expelliarmus!

Avada Kedavra!

Petrificus Totalus!

Reducto!

There were six Death Eaters, excluding Nagini’s plaything and Pettigrew who stood without robes. Bellatrix and Snape were easily recognizable, but the other four Rosalie struggled to put names to faces for. Sirius, who had grown up with several of these men and women, recognized them quickly: Nott, Dolohov, Rosier, and Mulciber.

Dolohov went down easily, as did Nott. Rosier and Mulciber put up a fight, while Bellatrix and Snape stayed near their Lord. Pettigrew looked ready to flee at a moment’s notice.

As much of a threat as the Death Eaters were, Nagini was arguably more so. Sirius and Rosalie had trained to fight wizards, not extremely fast and vicious snakes with potent venom.

When Sirius was about to be bitten, distracted by Rosier and Mulciber, Rosalie sent a blast of undirected magic at Mulciber, forcing him into the path. Nagini couldn’t stop herself before biting the man.

He didn’t get back up.

Voldemort was in the background still, waiting to see how things played out. He kept Bellatrix, Snape, and Pettigrew near to him, even as Rosier finally fell to a stinging hex to his groin followed by a powerful hit to the head.

“Bella, Severus: the woman. Peter: I think it’s time you had a little chat with your old friend.” But Peter was a coward and without Voldemort having a corporeal form with which to use magic, and with his allies unconscious or dead, he fled.

“Siri, get Peter. I’ll handle these two.” Rosalie said. She rotated her head until she heard a pop and squared her shoulders.

Bellatrix moved first, shooting a dark green spell out of her curved wand. Rosalie conjured stones to block the spell, using them as shields from behind which to return fire. Snape was more methodical, waiting for the opportunity to strike without attacking first.

Their strategies should have complimented each other, if they weren’t so incapable of cooperating. Snape was firing curses Rosalie had never even heard of: Langlock and Levicorpus.

Then Bellatrix cast a spell that was extremely stupid: fiendfyre. Snape was berating her idiocy before the spell finished leaving her lips and Voldemort looked suitably horrified as having fiendfyre so close to his horcrux. Nagini hadn’t managed to strike anyone else, since Voldemort had called her off so she couldn’t accidentally bite any of his remaining dwindling Death Eaters.

Behind her, Sirius returned with an unconscious Peter Pettigrew tied up behind him. With Bellatrix and Snape distracted, he quickly turned Snape’s own spell on him with a Levicorpus followed by Expelliarmus. Bellatrix was looking left and right, but couldn’t decide to stay and fight or to run.

Now, Voldemort seemingly ordered Nagini to flee, but Rosalie couldn’t have that. With a simple Leviosa she raised the snake and threw it into the fyre, hissing and spitting.

Sirius took care of Bellatrix as Rosalie watched Voldemort’s wraith catch fire as the snake burned up.

She stared transfixed as the last remnants of his dark presence faded. Sirius slapped a hand on her arm to get her to become aware of her surroundings. The fiendfyre was getting out of control, already having swallowed up several trees.

“Wards, now!” Sirius yelled, knowing that they had only a few seconds before the fire would get completely out of hand. When that happened, Hogwarts and all her students would be in danger too.

Hastily conjuring the strongest wards she knew, she focused as much as possible on containing the fire--no easy feat.

“Do you know the dispersal spell?!”

“That wasn’t on the curriculum! Might I remind you that I didn’t go to Hogwarts!” Rosalie yelled back. She’d never taken much interest in Fiendfyre and didn’t know how to properly neutralize it, only that normal magical means of eliminating fire didn’t work.

“Well I did and I can tell you it wasn’t on our curriculum either!”

“Not helpful, Siri!” Rosalie was succeeding in making her wards smaller, but it was taking a lot out of her. Sirius wasn’t fairing much better, sweat already on his brow. Snape was wriggling upside down, trying to say something, but neither could tell what. Finally, Rosalie made Sirius release the Langlock. Snape, now a mere few yards from the edge of the fire, screamed _Desinignis!_

Going for broke, Rosalie yelled the spell, guessing at the wandwork but hoping with all her might, and to her and Sirius’s surprise, it worked to contain the flames some--but not all. Sirius gave her a look of uncertainty before casting the spell himself, trying to mimic her wandwork. Thankfully, after recasting the spell several times, the fire finally was contained to a few square centimeters and then extinguished.

“Next time we bring Remus.” Rosalie muttered.

“Agreed.” Sirius replied. He nodded at Snape before putting him in a full body-bind.

“Drop ‘em off at the Ministry?” Sirius asked.

“Take the one to St. Mungos if he’s alive. I’ll get Snape, Lestrange, Dolohov, and Rosier if you’ve got Mulciber, Nott, and Pettigrew.” They quietly took down the wards. No one in Hogwarts had any idea that the Forbidden Forest had been partially on fire mere seconds before.

...............

Rosalie and Sirius decided the kids had the right idea: it was nap time.

...............

When they awoke again, it was to several toddlers peering at them and several more adults surrounding them.

“Well?” Narcissa asked, as though they had any idea what she was talking about.

“Well what?” Sirius asked through a yawn.

“Is he dead?”

“You-I-what.” Rosalie stuttered, finally awake. Sirius wasn’t even capable of words, with his jaw dropping straight to the floor.

“You can’t honestly think we didn’t know.” Commented Augusta.

“W-well, um... kinda?” Rosalie tried. Augusta looked unimpressed. Narcissa was clearly still waiting for an answer. Rosalie sighed.

“Yeah. Yeah, he’s dead. For good, this time.”

“Good. I’m requesting the day off for tomorrow and the next day. I’ll bring the good wine.” Narcissa said.

“I’ve got some cherry liqueur that’s been sitting in my cabinet for years collecting dust. I don’t think there’s a better occasion than this to use it.” Augusta added.

“And the kids?” Remus asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Andromeda can handle them for a day or two.”

..............

“So I guess this means you don’t have to hide from the muggle world anymore.” Sirius said, pouring his first shot. Augusta raised an eyebrow.

“I think you haven’t yet told us everything.” Rosalie nodded, took a shot, and began her story.

..............

Pettigrew was given the Kiss. Snape, after his actions spying for Dumbledore, was let off on probation, with circumstances stating that he could never teach again. Thankfully, Remus was available on short-notice to take his place.

Bellatrix and the other Death Eaters were either Kissed or sent to Azkaban for life.

For whatever reason, the Death Eaters were reluctant to admit who had defeated them. Perhaps it was vanity, or fear, or something else entirely. But no matter what they tried, no one would admit, not even Snape, who had saved the day.

These silent heroes were happy enough to continue living their lives as usual. After all, parenting was a full-time job.

...............

With the Death Eaters and Voldemort taken care of, the tutoring business flourished. Teachers from magical schools all over the globe offered to teach during the off-season. Dozens of muggleborns came when Hogwarts’ school year ended in July to learn all the things wizard-born students knew going into Hogwarts, while wizardborns came to learn all about muggle culture without fear of persecution.

Hadrian, Neville, Draco, and hundreds of other children grew up safe and loved in an environment that no longer tolerated hatred.

Rosalie cuddled Hadrian in her lap and read him a bedtime story and decided that soon, she would tell him of his legacy. Next door above the tutoring room, Augusta and Narcissa were gossiping, while Nymphadora “call me Tonks” rode around on Sirius’s dog form like a horse, and Neville and Draco were sleeping soundly. Remus and Adrian were discussing the benefits and downsides of muggle paper versus parchment down in Flourish and Blotts. It was quiet, without fear. The time would come, she knew, where Hadrian would need to know about his parents, about Voldemort, and about the adventures they had all weathered for a better future.

But for now, as Hadrian’s head dipped lower and the four-year-old found his eyes closing by themselves, Rosalie decided to let him sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment!


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